The Adventures of the Magical Mischief Makers
by Herena Sarafren Elmrhyssa
Summary: Ch.7 up! The Invisibility Cloak the Marauders were given for Christmas has lain unused until exams! But when Midgeon tells them where the kitchens are, it's too much to pass up! And now that they have a job to do, how can they refuse? Pls R+R :)
1. To Hogwarts

**1. **

_To Hogwarts_

It was raining. Inside the station there was a humid air, the platforms filled with all sorts of people shaking umbrellas, removing raincoats and ponchos, unsticking saturated jackets and rattling water droplets off wet briefcases. Sparely throughout the crowd were inconspicuous school children pushing trolleys. Some had their initials stamped on their school trunks. Some carried cages or wicker baskets carrying animals or birds. They were all heading towards platforms 9 and 10. Two boys, one after another were running from platform ten to platform nine, unnoticed by anyone else. They seemed to have no control over their trolleys, ready for a collision course with the barrier between the two platforms. But then…

Whoosh!

Both boys careened into and then through the barrier and out of sight and no one was any the wiser. 

It was quarter to eleven, September the first, 1969, and two normal-looking boys had just run out onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters at Kings Cross Station. Puffing steam into the air was a scarlet steam engine, engines hissing billow after billow of white smoke into the station where a sizeable group of people all dressed in rather unusual clothes were seeing their children off on their way to school. The marvellous steam train was stamped with the words 'Hogwarts Express' on the engine, many carriages trailing behind it. The miaows of cats, hoots of owls and other assorted animals could be heard above the warning whistle from the train. They were getting ready to leave. 

Up into the luggage racks went the trunks from the two boys' trolleys and they sprinted into a carriage as the doors were slammed shut by the station guards. Running onto the platform as they did this were two women, obviously their parents, waving farewell. Hardly noticing they were standing next to each other, both parent and son alike, they farewelled the departing train. It was now eleven o'clock and the Hogwarts Express was chugging out of the station, carrying its cargo of school children away for the year. 

The shorter of the two boys, still standing by the door, readjusted his glasses turned to the taller. 

"Quite a run, ey?"

"Almost didn't make it."

"Name's Potter," the shorter, scruffy-haired boy declared, offering his hand. His tall, dark-haired companion shook it.

"Black. Sirius Black. So is your name just 'Potter', or did your parents remember to give you another one?"

Potter laughed at this. "James, for your information. James Potter."

"Ahhh," Sirius grinned, flashing a handsome smile. They started walking down the carriage, looking for a spare compartment. There wasn't one to be found yet. "First year?"

"You bet. You?"

"Same."

"Yeah, I'd bet that the older kids wouldn't miss the train."

Sirius chuckled. "You a wizarding family?"

"Yeah. I'd guess you are; Black's a known name."

"Ehhh," Sirius didn't appear too pleased with that. "Maybe so."

"You guys looking for a spare compartment?"

Leaning jauntily against the doorframe of what was apparently his compartment; a sandy-haired boy looked out at them from under a silver-stippled fringe.

"There's one down the end of the next carriage. Only two people in it. They'll have you."

"There's _no empty ones?" James asked. The second-year shook his head. _

"Two's the least you'll find."

"They'll both be loons," Sirius muttered. Their informant laughed.

"At least it's only a day – next time you'll be early for the train."

There was answering laughter from within the compartment. The second-year was sharing his room with a group of classmates. Sirius drew himself to full height.

"Are you picking something?"

"Hell no," he laughed again, this time sharp like the caw of a raven. "I don't pick fights with first-years. See, us Ravenclaws are smart. Picking a fight with you… hah! I'm helping you!"

"C'mon Sirius, let's go."

He let himself be led away from the tall, skinny boy, who was laughing at something one of his friends said in the wake of their departure. After crossing into the next carriage, Sirius huffed. 

"Hope I'm not in Ravenclaw with that turkey." 

"Nah. Come on. There's the compartment he was talking about," James stopped and slid open the door. The two black-robed kids inside stopped what may have been a hushed, and if so, rather disinterested-looking conversation to look up at him. One was a girl, light framed and dark-haired with grey eyes to match the clouds outside and the other was a lean boy with a nervous but tired look to him. James spoke first.

"There's uh… no room anywhere else. Do you mind if we join you?"

They looked at each other, the boy and the girl, and then he spoke up.

"Sure… we don't mind."

James and Sirius slid in and closed the door behind them, dragging their smaller trunks in and hoisting them up into the luggage rack. James and Sirius sat opposite their two companions and paused a moment. This time it was Sirius who made the introductory move. He looked up at them and smiled. The girl looked swiftly away.

"Sirius Black. James Potter. Who might you both be?"

The boy looked at him as if Sirius was an alien, and then he replied as if it were the world's biggest effort to speak.

"I'm Remus…" then, as if he had forgotten to add it on, "…Lupin. But as for her, I don't even know if she can speak. She hasn't said half a word all morning. Kinda good… I'm a little tired myself."

"Are you first-years?" James asked, making conversation even though Remus said he was tired. He nodded in reply.

"Yeah."

"Good, so are we."

Sirius had since turned his attention on their female friend. Since he'd started looking at her, she'd turned to the window and pretended to ignore their presence. But she'd glance out of the corner of her eye to see if he was still looking at her. 

"So… are you deaf… dumb… shy? What's your name?"

It was as if she hadn't even heard him. Sirius sat back and raised his eyebrows, looking to James who shrugged. Remus sighed.

"Told you."

"Mana."

The three of them turned. She'd looked away from the window, and was now staring intensely at her hands as if they were the most interesting things she'd seen in her life.

"Mana?"

"…Elmerfean."

"Mana Elmerfean, huh?"

Sirius gave that smile again and she blushed furiously, breaking her newly made gaze as she looked back to her hands. Remus gave a little smirk that was mirrored by James. But Sirius wouldn't consider that as being the end of the conversation.

"Elmerfean… I haven't heard that name before. What background are you?"

"Pure," she replied simply and quietly. Then as an afterthought she added, "But not from around here."

No matter what she couldn't seem to look Sirius in the eye. James winked and chuckled. It seemed to put her off and she looked up at him.

"What's so funny?"

"Are you shy?"

Her grey eyes seemed to flash with dislike, but quickly they softened again. But she didn't answer him. Sirius fought to keep the conversation going.

"Looking forward to tonight, Mana?"

"Hmmmmm?"

"You know, the Sorting, the feast, first night at Hogwarts…"

"Oh… I guess so."

"What house do you want to go into?"

"Any is fine."

He wouldn't give up, and searched her for something to talk about. His eyes alighted on a pendant she wore. A crystal ring which enclosed a bright golden bird with its wings creased.

"What's that?" he asked, pointing. Mana glanced down at it.

"Just something my uncle gave me."

"Oh yeah?"

"It's supposed to be Altithuse, the Lord Phoenix. A protection charm."

"Those are pretty sought after nowadays," he commented as James and Remus started talking between themselves. The train chugged along through the rainy countryside. Mana shrugged. 

"Trivial things like this aren't much of a protection against much. Unless of course it has some sort of queer power I've yet to see."

"Well if it's a Phoenix, maybe it gives you a second chance at life if you die wearing it."

"I don't really want to go finding out."

"Well neither would I."

"You said you were a first-year too? Aren't you nervous?"

"Maybe a little. I think everyone is. It's just starting school, that's all. If you're nervous now, you probably won't be by this time next week, even sooner. Me, I can't wait till broomstick lessons. I have an old Comet One Eighty at home, used to be my dad's. Mother said she wouldn't buy me a proper one until I'd learned to fly one properly. What about you? Ever ridden a broomstick?"

"…Once or twice. Not enough to know whether or not I'm any good."

"You'll be good at something, I'm sure. Hey, what's your wand? Twelve inches, birch, rigid, single unicorn hair."

She pulled something long and white out from under her black school robes. Gazing at it a moment, she replied automatically.

"Fourteen inches, flexible, ghostbark, Occamy feather…"

"Bizarre…" he breathed, looking at it. "I didn't know they put Occamy feathers into wands. What's it good for?"

"Charms and hexes… particularly defence and functional."

Sirius smiled and said nothing more. After a moment of his silence, Mana looked up at him curiously. He laughed.

"That was really hard, you know?"

"What?"

"Getting you to talk was really hard. I was getting stuck thinking up things to talk about."

At last she gave, giggling. The rest of the trip through the countryside was quiet. Night fell and the rain started to peter out. By the time the Hogwarts Express began to slow down in the dark night, Remus, Sirius, James and Mana were considering themselves friends. The train jolted to a halt. 

Clambering out of the carriage and down onto the station platform, they were lit by lamps and surrounded on all sides by loudly chattering students all in pointy hats and black robes, some with crests others without. These without crests perked up and faced the same direction at the sound of a voice lifting above the clamour.

"First-years this way please! First-years this way!"

A middle-aged man wearing a thick coat over his purple robes held a lantern aloft and continued to call until the rest of the students had headed off elsewhere.

"First-years! This way please!"

The quiet throng of soon-to-be students gathered around him. Sirius appeared at Mana's side, followed by Remus and James. Their caller looked over them, and then waved his lantern towards a path leading off into the dark.

"This way to the boats, please make groups of four and follow me, mind your step."

"Well this is picked for us," James commented, trailing along with the rest of the first-years. Remus snorted in something that could be construed as a laugh. The path wound down through the darkness. Remus had caught onto Mana's sleeve to prevent himself from getting separated. Then they came out into the light on the shore of a lake, its water black and reflecting the starlight that was beginning to show through the clouds.

The portly man waved his lantern behind him towards a castle set into the background, lights agleam with bright yellow light. Along the bank of the lake were many small boats, all waiting for them.

"All right first-years, remember, no more than four to a boat please."

He himself climbed into a boat with two scared-looking girls. The four managed to claim themselves a boat before losing out, finding themselves next to a group of twittering girls trying to sort out who'd go in what boat of the two they'd 'reserved'. After being told to hurry it along by the man with the lantern, they wasted no time in clambering in. James gave a laugh that seemed a little nervous.

"Here we go, huh?"

"Can't wait," Sirius added, though his voice had become a little shaky. Mana didn't say anything; instead she leaned on the edge of the boat and touched the cold water. Remus merely yawned, but covering his mouth with his hand they could see it was shaking, and not from the cool breeze. 

"Been waiting for this my whole life," he added on in a dead voice as at the cry of 'Forward!' from the lantern-man sent the boats gliding along the clear surface of the lake. The tittering girls were quiet now, but somewhere far off to the left another boatful had started chattering loudly. The castle loomed ever nearer, and as the little boats got nearer to the cliff on which it sat, they could see where they were headed. An overhang shielded by ivy was the entrance they were going to take into the castle, and they knew this as the first boat carrying the lantern-man disappeared under it, followed by the next boat and then the next. Eventually they were all passing underneath the overhang and they soon found themselves against the opposite bank. The castle loomed overhead. 

Clambering out of the boats, they waited as the lantern-man checked them all to make sure nothing had been left behind. Then, with a beaming smile he led them up another path and around the front of the castle, up the stone front through a set of heavy-looking doors. They crossed the wide entrance hall and ascended one more set of stairs until they stood on the landing in front of another set of great doors. The lantern-man stopped there.

"Okay, now if you'll please wait here while I get Professor McGonagall, and then you'll all be sorted into your houses. Don't wander off!"

He turned and walked into the room beyond, the momentary opening of the doors letting in a rush of chatter and sound. The four turned to each other. 

"Wonder where each of us'll go?" James pondered. 

"I hope I don't end up in Slytherin," Sirius put in. "I love to break family traditions."

"It'd be good if we all got in the same house," Remus said. He waited to see if Mana would add, then continued. "It'd be a bit rough if we all got split up after getting to know each other so well."

"…And quickly," Mana put in. Sirius made sure to acknowledge it.

"So does anyone actually know how we're sorted?"

"No," James replied. "I hear its some sort of test."

"I don't have a clue whatsoever," Remus added in. Again Mana didn't say anything. There was an anticipating buzz around them from their fellow first-years. Then the doors opened again and out strode a tall woman with her hair in a tight bun, a tall hat on her head. In one hand she held a rolled up scroll of some kind. 

"Now first-years, please. I am Professor McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of this school. You'll now proceed with me into the Great Hall to be sorted into the four houses: Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. Please form a line and follow me."

She paused to make sure her instruction was being followed and then turned, pacing swiftly back into the hall, the bravest of the first-years following close behind in a nervous single-file formation. The four of them managed to not be split up as they jumped in line close behind, having to move at a reasonable pace to keep up with their classmates keeping up with McGonagall. 

They were led into the Great Hall, its vaulted ceiling filled with awe: it reflected the night sky outside. Thousands upon thousands of candles hovered between the tables and the roof-sky, the entire school was watching as they were led through the hall to the front. The four tables that stood apart from each other in the hall were for the separate houses as they could see by seas of red and gold crests, black and yellow, blue and bronze and green and silver. But facing the tables at the far end was another, and at this was seated the teachers of the school they had entered. 

Sirius, James, Mana and Remus all looked at each other in silence as they waited, lined up in front of the teacher's table. By now, even Sirius was trembling a little, with both nerves and anticipation. McGonagall walked up to this table and waited until the first-years had lined up in front of her, then brought forward a stool and a battered old hat. She rested the hat on the stool and stepped back. A seam opened up and the hat began to sing:

_Though bruised am I and battered_

_From many years of wear,_

_And my seams are ripped and tattered_

_And my patches hardly there,_

_I'm still sharp as a dart_

_So try me, put me on._

_I'll read what lies inside your heart_

_And see where you belong._

_If you belong in Hufflepuff_

_You must be just and true_

_Your will is strong, your heart is tough_

_And you're loyal through and through._

_If you should go to Ravenclaw_

_Then bless your witty mind_

_For if you are smart and sure_

_There you'll find your kind._

_But what if you're a Slytherin,_

_A cunning little make?_

_You'll achieve anything_

_No matter what the stake._

_Or maybe you're a Gryffindor_

_Where the brave and headstrong go_

_Where you'll find a strength inside you or_

_You're bolder than you know._

_But no matter where I put you,_

_Just remember that_

_We must work together, that's really true!_

_From me, the Sorting Hat!_

The Great Hall erupted into applause. McGonagall stepped forward again, unrolling the scroll.

"Now I will call your names one at a time, you will come forward and sit down on this stool; the hat will then sort you into your houses. Aberley, Harvey."

She placed the hat over his head. Little Harvey Aberley disappeared beneath the rim for a little while before the hat's seam opened and it cried out in a loud voice:

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

It wasn't long until the first of them was called.

"Black, Sirius!"

Sirius chanced a nervous grin. "Wish me luck," he murmured as he stepped forward. The remaining three looked at each other in silence and then up at Sirius. As far as they were concerned, he was about to set the standard. McGonagall dropped the hat over his head and he disappeared beneath it for a good half a minute or so before the hat quite suddenly cried out.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat was lifted from his head and Sirius stood, trotting down towards the Gryffindor table. He glanced at them and gave them the thumbs-up. There were others.

"Dwyer, Theodore!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Then further down a little.

"Ebercroft, Louise!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

And then.

"Elmerfean, Manevitrae!"

Both Remus and James turned their gaze to Mana as she stepped forward, nervously sitting down. She too disappeared under the hat. It thought for a moment and then called its decision.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

Mana was off the chair as soon as the hat was pulled from her head, quite in a hurry to be away from the hat. She followed Sirius' wave as he beckoned her over with a wide grin. Remus turned to James and dared to whisper.

"Two down."

"Two to go. You're next."

"Don't remind me."

"Gudgeon, Gladys!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

They waited in silence until at last McGonagall called the next one.

"Lupin, Remus!"

Remus wandered up still looking a little under the weather but rather shaken up as well. He sat down, the hat dropped and it didn't take long before:

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"You watch me be the odd one out," James whispered in his ear as he passed him on his way to the cheering Gryffindor table. Remus laughed. 

"Marker, Polly!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Midges, Louie!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Slowly and surely.

"Pettigrew, Peter!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

James braced himself.

"Potter, James!"

Eager to get it over with, he sprang forward quickly and sat down. McGonagall dropped the hat on his head. It felt like an instant drawn into forever.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

James stood up as fast as Mana had. Bouncing down the stairs, he moved as fast as he could down the Gryffindor table. Sliding into a seat between Sirius and a fourth year, they congratulated each other profusely. Even tired little Lupin was bright-eyed.

"The odds were endlessly against us," he laughed. "But will you look at that! All four of us! Gryffindor!"

But no one had taken it quite so well as Mana. She was laughing hysterically at Sirius' attempts to pronounce her full name. Lupin tried to have a go at spelling it. But even she managed to muffle herself when the headmaster, an elderly man with a long white beard and half-moon spectacles stood up to speak. The hall went silent.

"Welcome back to all out old students and welcome to our new ones. For you who do not know me, I am your headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Now briefly some start of year announcements, to all first-years and some older students," he seemed to look towards the Ravenclaw table, "the Forbidden Forest is, as its name states, forbidden and no student is permitted to enter there. Also in addition to last year's list, the following items are banned in the corridors: self-throwing Frisbees, Filibuster's fireworks and no-string yo-yo's. And on a much happier note, let the Welcoming Feast begin!"

As soon as he sat down the golden plates all along the tables magically filled with all sorts of foodstuff and drinks imaginable. Even Remus had trouble staying tired, the trembling, relieved first-years all through the hall forgetting their nervousness and brightening up. It was a celebratory occasion indeed. They had all just been sorted into the four houses and were ready to start their first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.


	2. Getting to know you

**2. **

_Getting to know you…_

"Do you know where the timetables are?"

"Errrr… maybe?"

"That's not a straight answer, Sirius."

"Remus, you yawn too much."

"Has anyone seen our timetables?"

"I don't think a Comet One Eighty is any good."

"Did anyone hear me before?"

"Two Ten, on the other hand…"

"I _do _know that we have Herbology first."

"First you try and get me to talk to you…"

"Who teaches it?"

"What?"

"Herbology."

"Dunno."

"…Then you completely ignore me."

"James, pass the Pumpkin juice, would you? Thanks."

"I'm listening to you, Mana. No I haven't seen the timetables."

"But when it all comes down to it, I'd go for the Nimbus series."

"Do you ever _not _talk about broomsticks?"

"I'm just saying. The 1000's are the top-line model."

"No they're not; the Twigger Seventeen came out in spring."

"Did someone say I yawn too much or was I daydreaming again?"

"It might be the latest model, but no broom matches up to the Nimbus series, I hear there's a new model planned for this November."

"_You _have the timetables? I thought you were laughing at something. Give it here, Sirius."

"Are you gonna eat that, or play with it?"

The morning conversations were so erratic they had no idea who was talking about what. James seemed to have started talking to himself because no one was listening to him go on about what broomsticks were decent in his opinion. Remus was chipping in here and there, pushing a lump of porridge around his bowl with a spoon and looking like he was about to fall asleep in it. Sirius relinquished the hidden timetables to his friends, and Mana was paying attention to Sirius and Remus as they spoke. James continued to rattle on, completely oblivious to the fact that no one was listening to him.

"I hear that we get our first broomstick lesson in the second or third week. I'd like to learn on a Swiftstick or a Tinderblast, but we'll probably just have some old Cleansweep Threes or something like that."

"Uh-huh," Sirius nodded blankly, paying more attention to his timetable than to James. He went to eat a spoonful of porridge to find that the spoon had vanished from his hand. Not only did he not see the same spoon hovering ominously a few inches over his head, but also he didn't see Mana's wand furtively being flicked under the table. James had since leaned his chin on his hand and was staring off into space as he kept going, oblivious to Sirius' rather comic confusion.

"I bet we get a bunch of old brooms that won't even 'up' when you tell them to. Or that go weird when you're flying them. Silver Arrows or something ancient like that. A museum wouldn't even want the brooms I bet they have."

"If you say so James," Remus murmured, swirling his porridge in the opposite direction. Mana was watching him queerly. Sirius saw her wand and looked up…

"Or we'll get a teacher who'll say we can't fly so high or so fast. We learn with another house, right? Maybe Hufflepuff. I'd like to show those wimps something on a broomstick."

…And the spoon fell, contents and all, smacking him in the forehead…

"Hey Remus… you're making me dizzy."

…And he fell backwards off the chair. James finally looked at him, utterly vexed.

"I think I've just come to a startling conclusion."

"What's that, James?" Remus asked blankly.

"No one's listening to me."

"What was that?" Sirius asked innocently, dragging himself back into his chair and rubbing a red mark on his head. His subsequent glare made Mana laugh more. James pointed, an example having presented itself.

"See?"

Remus smirked.

"That's nice of No one," Mana replied. "Well I'm sure No one is very interested in what you have to say." 

"Oh the sweet little thing is so cute," James answered back as Sirius stood up, tugging Remus' robes to encourage him to do so too.

"Come on Remus, you're obviously not interested in your breakfast. I need to sort out some things before class starts. What about you two?"

"I suppose," James agreed, standing up. Mana slowly did the same, quietly following them out of the hall. At the door however, she paused to look a boy in the face as they met. His button nose and watery eyes she had seen quivering along with the rest of him the night before. He stared back, and then shakily introduced himself.

"P-P-Peter Pettigrew. I'm in Gryffindor."

"Manevitrae Elmerfean. Gryffindor."

There was something she didn't like about those mousey features. 

"Herbology first with the Ravenclaws, ey?"

"Yeah."

"Oh w-well, nice to meet you."

He trotted off as a group of loudly chattering second-years went through the door. Mana waited for them to leave, and then walked over to the stairs where Sirius Black stood waiting against the banister.

"You waiting for me?"

"Yep. Come on," taking hold of her arm, he led her up the stairs. 

"That Peter Pettigrew boy spoke to me before," she told him as they passed up their third set of stairs. 

"Yeah, me too, as I was coming down to the Great Hall this morning. Quiet kid."

"I think he wants to be friends."

"Probably. He looks like the sort of kid who'd cuddle up to the biggest person who'll have him."

"But Sirius," Mana smirked, "I think you're the biggest person in our year."

"Heheheheheh. Doesn't mean I'll have him."

Mana had to trot to keep up with him. Eventually in the corridor ahead they caught up with a rather slow-moving James and Remus. In fact, they had completely stopped walking. As soon as they saw Sirius though, Remus laughed.

"See? I told you we were going the right way. Turn left at the headless knight tapestry indeed!"

"You thought you were lost?" Sirius asked as they walked up to them. "Next you'll be forgetting the password."

"Nah, password's easy. _Alpha Centuri. I remember that one."_

Laughing, the four of them continued up and up until they found themselves in a lonely corridor, facing a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress. Pacing up, Sirius stepped forward and said boldly:

"Alpha Centuri."

"Most certainly dears," the Fat Lady replied and swung aside. The Gryffindor common room lay beyond. It was adorned in red and gold, with a great many cushy armchairs and sofas. A noticeboard was on the far wall, and a fireplace burned across from the door. Two sets of spiralling staircases led up towards the dormitories.

Mana left them there, hurrying up the stairs to the girl's dormitories. Sirius, Remus and James all walked up their own flight into their own dormitory. Remus was straight over to his bag, putting the books he would need into it. Sirius followed a little more slowly, and James sauntered around the room for a while before descending upon his own trunk. The room contained six beds, each belonging to a different first-year. They shared their dormitory with three other boys: Frank Longbottom, Peter Pettigrew and Marcus Bellator. They were likely still down at breakfast. Sirius swung his bag over one arm and stood up.

"I'll see you down in the common room."

"Sure," James agreed, head buried in his trunk. Remus was sitting absently on the end of his bed, one bag strap hanging from his hand. Straightening up, James dumped his books into his bag, followed by a quill, a bottle of ink and a few rolls of parchment. Closing the bag, he looked up at Remus and, seeing that he was staring off into space again, rolled up a scrap piece of parchment and pegged it at his head. Remus looked up, now slow for an act. James shook his head with a laugh.

"Wake up, Lupin."

Remus stood up and hoisted his bag after him, grinning.

"Let's go plant stuff."

"Before you plant your head back in that pillow? Sure."

By the time they wandered down into the common room, Sirius and Mana were waiting for them. They'd been talking idly, but stopped when they appeared and Sirius hailed them with a grin.

"Ready to go?"

"Sure am," James replied, and looked up as the portrait door swung open. Peter Pettigrew came bumbling in, panting. "In a hurry, Pettigrew? We have class now."

"I know," he said as he tottered past, up the stairs. "I forgot my bag."

"Let's wait for him," Remus sighed. "It's not like we're gonna be late."

"He's a bit dotty, that Peter Pettigrew," Mana said in answer. Noting the look that particularly James had given her, she added, "I know I'm not one to talk, but he is, you know."

"So where exactly do we go?" James asked Sirius, changing the subject.

"Greenhouses. Out on the grounds."

"Clever boy," Remus smirked. He was about to add when Peter came rumbling back down the stairs. He looked around at them as he stopped mid-step and stared.

"W-what are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you," James replied. "Come on Pettigrew. Let's go to Herbology."

"You were waiting for _me?" the watery-eyed boy asked as they stepped out of the common room and into the corridor. "Why were you waiting for me?"_

"Felt like it," Sirius replied, not taking his eyes off the corridor ahead. "After all, Gryffindors of a feather must stick together."

Mana twittered. They turned a corner and continued on down a flight of stairs, passing other students on their way to class. The first bell of the morning rang through the corridors.

"Ten minutes to get to class," Remus murmured to them. "Plenty of time."

Tall Marcus Bellator passed them, dragging behind him a Hufflepuff boy in their year who seemed to have got lost: he was heading upstairs to his Potions lesson.

"…Just remember, Theo, Potions is in the _dungeon. Now think back to your understanding of the layout of a castle, exactly where are the dungeons…"_

James and Sirius both laughed, and Peter sighed.

"That's me… getting lost. I can see it now. A Ravenclaw grabbing my collar and saying 'Peter, the outside of the castle isn't upstairs Peter…'"

"I'd rather a Ravenclaw drag me around by the collar…" James began, but as he said it, a group of Ravenclaw second-years walked past. He thought he could recognise a sand and silver lock of hair amongst them. "…But then again… even some Ravenclaws…"

"What, you're talking about that kid in the train?"

"Yeah. I think that was him back there."

"Are you talking about a second-year boy who looks like he got silver spray paint in his hair?" Peter asked, looking meekly past Remus to James. He nodded. Peter seemed to shake something off his shoulders. "Oh I know him. He teased me on the train."

"What did he do?" Mana asked, not having met the Ravenclaw they were talking about. Remus was just as curious. Peter's face screwed up.

"I was walking after the lunch trolley lady because I'd forgotten to ask for something. He was hanging out his door."

"Like he owned half of Britain," Sirius added sourly and got a nod of agreement from Peter and James.

"And he stops me all nice like. Then he asks if I know much about Muggle music. Now I know a little, see my next-door neighbour, a weird fellow named Arbutus Whelk, was into it. So I said yes."

James and Sirius glanced at each other. 

"And?" they pressed in unison.

"He said 'well, me and my friends want to have a little go at rock and roll. We have a rock… and you look like you could roll pretty well.'"

"That's not very nice," Mana replied, looking over her shoulder as if to see if a Ravenclaw second-year was coming down the corridor so she could rouse on them. James and Sirius glanced at each other again.

"Oh and it just went on like that."

"Cocky prat," Remus mumbled. "The Ravenclaws think they're good because they're smart."

"I'm sure they're not all like that," Mana said. Sirius snorted.

"No, just maize-haired troglodytes."

"Whoa!" James laughed at his choice of words, but Mana and Peter looked confused.

"What's a troglodyte?" Mana asked innocently as they came down the sweeping marble staircase out into the Entrance Hall and crossed it to the castle doors. James snorted all too much like Sirius and grinned cheekily.

"He doesn't know."

"I do too!"

"Then just what _is _a drogmedite?" 

"It's _troglodyte," he corrected matter-of-factly. "And I don't have to tell you what it means."_

"He doesn't know," Remus murmured with a grin in Mana's ear. She laughed again at Sirius' indignant, but otherwise hopeless expression. 

"Big word not in Mana vocabulary."

"It's not in Sirius' either by the sounds of it," James grinned. Embarrassed, Sirius said nothing. They crossed the grounds laughing. In front of the first greenhouse were the rest of their house and the Ravenclaws they were having the lesson with. James rolled his eyes.

"Snooty Ravenclaws."

"Better than Slytherins," Remus sighed as they sidled up. Being the last to show, they got a few looks from the rest of their class. Their teacher was nowhere to be seen. Mana stepped away from the four boys and turned to a red-headed Gryffindor girl.

"Lily, where's the teacher?"

She turned her green eyes to her. "Don't know. I hear though that his name's Professor Twiggy. Isn't it the cutest name?"

The black-haired, curly-locked girl who had her back turned spun around at Lily's words. She laughed a high laugh and fixed them both with twinkling eyes that had heavy eyelashes.

"A twiggy is something Muggles eat," she chirped brightly, finally attracting the attentions of the boys who wandered up behind Mana. "It's a little cabanossi!"

"Wonder where he is though?" Peter looked around. Sirius leaned over Mana's shoulder, taller than her as he was.

"Introduce us to your friends, Mana."

"Oh, guys, this is Lily Evans and Midgeon Gidget."

"Everyone usually calls me Midgie though," Midgeon chirruped. 

"Girls, this is Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew."

James made to sweep an imaginary hat from his head that made Midgeon simply explode with loud laughter.

"Ladies."

"Oh what a charmer," Midgeon laughed again. Lily managed a smile at him. 

"Okay, okay, okay kids, line up!"

A short little wizard with a pointy hat that had leaves and vines tangled around it had stepped out of the greenhouse. His wiry hair was a strange greenish-grey colour, and his brown robes had a dirty apron that may once have been white tied in front of them. He had a rather large nose and ears that stuck out from under his hat as if they were what was holding it up. He had a beaming smile as he took them in with little black eyes.

"Ahhh, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor first-years. Wonderful! Now. Please head into the greenhouse, today I'll tell you about what you'll be doing in Herbology classes."

They followed the short professor into the greenhouse, and he led them up to the very end of a long trestle table.

"First of all, in Herbology class we'll be working in groups of six. I do like a mixed group, so boys, work with the girls, and Ravenclaws work with the Gryffindors! It does help build friendships outside your own houses. Before we start, please find your group of six and stand along the table. Good, good, remember you'll be working in these groups all this year."

The six Gryffindor boys looked at each other and laughed to themselves, staying where they were standing across from their female counterparts of whom there were five. Lily gave them a hard stare and turned to Midgeon.

"We need one more."

A mismatched Ravenclaw girl wandered past them and turned to Lily.

"Are you only five?"

"Yeah."

"There were seven of us. I'm left out."

"Come on then sweetheart," Midgeon invited in her loud, cheery voice.

"What's your name?" Mana asked. The red-haired girl smiled.

"Louise Ebercroft. I was Sorted just before you were."

"Well I'm Midgie (Midgeon), this is Lily, that's Mane-can't remember her full name – we just call her Mana – this is Alice and that's Figgy (short for Figwelda, of course)."

Louise laughed. "Well hello."

"And I'm Jiggy, he's PeteyP, SB, RU Loopy, Marco and of course Franko," James joked loudly over the table at the girls. Midgeon rolled her eyes gaudily. She had gum in her mouth.

"And them's the boys," she chuckled, tossing her thick, bouncy hair over one shoulder. "Bozo, Whats-iz-name, Beanpole, Snoozy, Big and Midget."

Louise was trying not to laugh too loudly as Professor Twiggy called for quiet.

"All right now that we have our groups," he clapped his hands together and looked around at the class, "I'll tell you what we'll be covering."

They fell silent and turned to face him. Professor Twiggy pulled a grubby-looking book out from under the trestle table.

"Now. You should all have a pair of dragon hide gloves and a copy of _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_. Anyone not have these? No? Good. Well, seeing as today is only our first lesson, we'll use the time to go over some things you'll be needing to know, so next lesson we can get right into some practical. Now. If you'll keep those books in your bags but pay attention here," he said, pulling on his pair of gloves, "You'll see some of the things we use in Herbology class. Here we have a standard plant pot, nothing special about it at all, even Muggles use them."

There was a mass 'ooohhhh' through the class as the terracotta pot was put down on the table. Next Professor Twiggy dragged over a large Hessian sack.

"This is the fertilizer we use at Hogwarts, dragon dung, now I know how it sounds but magical plants will have trouble growing in normal soil. As for the soil, we only use the best we can find. Dragon dung is good but mooncalf dung is the best available. Unfortunately the difficulty with acquiring it makes it a little expensive, so we don't use it in classes. Alright, standard trowels and shovels, if I have to explain what these are for… well… let's hope I don't have to explain. 

"Now usually this morning's double lesson is devoted entirely to practical work, and we have our theory lesson on Wednesday afternoon in the single. So you won't have to bring your books to this double lesson unless I ask you in advance. But that's most all you'll need to know for now. What I would like you to do, in your groups, take out your books and go for a wander around the greenhouse. Use your books to identify the different plants. At the end of this hour, we'll all meet back here and discuss what you saw and how you think they should be tended. Feel free to play with the plants, there's more than enough to pop and pluck at, but not too much please! Enjoy yourselves!"

They wandered off into the reaches of the greenhouse, their textbooks out. The girls were standing under a spreading Alihosty tree about a quarter of an hour later. Midgeon was popping her gum as Lily flipped through her book. Mana and Louise were looking up into the branches of the spindly tree.

"Ahhh, here. Alihosty. It says eating the leaves causes hysteria."

"Cool," Midgeon crooned, pulling off a leaf and turning it over in her hands. "Hey I got an idea, let's grind one up and stick it in Bozo's drink tonight."

"Do you have a Calming Draught handy?" Mana asked. "James suffering hysteria? He's bad enough as it is anyway and I've only known him two days."

Lily seemed to laugh. "Why don't we find a Venomous Tentacula and put some of that in his drink? See if he turns purple."

"Purple?" Figgy, a bespectacled brunette asked. Louise nodded as she looked at some fat pink pods near the Alihosty.

"Didn't you ever hear of Derwent Shimpling? He's on the Chocolate Frog cards. He ate a whole Tentacula and he survived."

"But he's still purple as grape Bertie Botts," Midgeon laughed. "Ma was a huge fan of his."

"Eating a Venomous Tentacula is dangerous. They don't say it's venomous for no reason."

"Puffapod," Mana declared, appearing at Louise's shoulder with her book. She laughed. "Let's drop one!"

"Why?" Figgy asked, looking up. Mana picked one of the fat little pods up and held it out over the ground.

"Watch."

She dropped it, and as soon as it hit the ground a huge bloom of flowers erupted from it with a loud _pop! The girls laughed. Lily flipped through her book._

"So it's the seeds inside. If they're dropped, they burst into flower. Drop the whole pod, lots of flowers."

"I guess if you wanted to grow them, you'd put them somewhere where they wouldn't be bumped or anything, right?" Louise said, and turned to look at Midgeon, who was sniffing the Alihosty leaf. Figgy giggled.

"If you wanted to grow Alihosty, keep it away from Midgie and her harebrained ideas."

They were giggling over this and considering moving on when…

_CRACK!_

The noise from behind Mana made them all jump a mile, even more for poor Mana who copped it right in the ear. The Gryffindor boys were standing not far behind them, roaring with laughter, and James and Sirius were standing right behind her with what looked like the remains of a fuzzy bon-bon in their hands. James was on the floor in a fit of laughter. Sirius waved the remains of the plant at her.

"Irish Peapod. They're filled with gas that explodes when it hits air. Haha, you should've seen your faces."

Vindictively, the raven-haired girl picked up another Puffapod and lobbed it at him. It exploded so hard that he fell backwards, face blank in surprise. James sat up and the boys stopped laughing. Then the girls started. The faint flicker of a grin was touching Mana's red face, and slowly she too began to laugh. Sirius stared at nothing for a moment and then looked up quite vacantly at her. He too started to laugh, his lap full of bright flowers. Their laughter must have attracted attention, as Professor Twiggy wound his way over to them.

"And what's going on here, kids?"

"Oh nothing much, Professor," Midgeon laughed. "We're just helping each other a bit with these plants. Irish Peapod and Puffapod. The boys were showing us how the former worked, and we showed them the latter."

Obviously Professor Twiggy knew what had gone on, but his beady eyes twinkled with mirth and he laughed. 

"Good to see you're working together. Five points to the Gryffindor," he smiled at Louise, "and five to Ravenclaw as well. Carry on!"

He toddled off into another part of the greenhouse. As soon as he was gone, the twelve of them burst into laughter again.


	3. Boys will be boys

**3. **

_Boys will be boys_

The term passed relatively quickly, filled with Potions lessons in the dungeons, Transfiguration under the stern eye of Professor McGonagall, Charms with a vibrant little gnome Filius Flitwick, their Defence Against the Dark Arts and of course Herbology. The school had announced they'd be ordering new brooms to replace the old Silver Arrows, so broomstick lessons were postponed for the time being. The warm weather faded away into chilly days and as November neared, so did the Quidditch season.

Quidditch was a game that only wizards and witches played. It was played on broomsticks in an oval pitch, at each end of which were three goal hoops. There were seven players to a team: three Chasers who handled a big red ball called the Quaffle and were responsible for scoring, two Beaters who carried heavy bats and swung at Bludgers which were balls that tried to unseat the other players, one Keeper, who guarded the goals and tried to stop the other teams from scoring and one Seeker, whose job it was to catch the Golden Snitch. The Golden Snitch was worth one hundred and fifty points so the team that caught it generally won. A game of Quidditch wasn't over until the Snitch was caught.

It was a blustery but otherwise fair day early that November when the announcement came around that Gryffindor would be playing Ravenclaw during the next week. The halls were buzzing with excitement – everyone loved Quidditch. And if James wasn't bad enough with his pointless broomstick waffling, it got worse on the day of the match. All morning he was barraging them with trivia on the wide assortment of broomsticks available to the point where even Peter Pettigrew, awed as he was by James' knowledge, was starting to get bored. When Sirius stood up and offered to reserve a spot in the stand while James finished his breakfast, there was a sudden group of volunteers to accompany him.

"You don't have to be so subtle!" James called after him as he, accompanied by Peter, Remus, Mana and Midgeon walked away, leaving James with Marcus and Frank. They were already in the stands and chatting away by the time James came down, planting himself between Sirius and Peter.

"You can be such a prat sometimes," he said, and Sirius merely laughed. They watched as the stadium slowly filled up. The teachers were filling into their reserved box, and alongside McGonagall was the commentator. Midgeon popped her gum.

"I'd love to commentate."

"You always have gum, Midgie," Figgy said, appearing next to her with Lily and Alice. Midgeon grinned.

"Ma says it looks good. She's always been that way. My Gramma was Sacharissa Tugwood." 

"I have a card of her," Figgy said in her blocked-nose voice. "Pioneer of beauty potions."

Sirius looked past Mana at the girls, and then turned to Mana.

"Is beauty all you girls talk about?"

"Is broomsticks all you boys talk about?"

"I don't talk about broomsticks."

"And I don't give a Fizzing Whizzbee about beauty."

He laughed, and then turned to the stadium as the commentator's voice lifted above the chattering crowd.

"Welcome to the Hogwarts Quidditch Pitch! I'm your commentator Rohan Wood! Today's match – Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw!"

The stadium erupted into cheers and applause. Two teams were walking out onto the pitch, one in robes of blue and bronze and the other in red and gold.

"Welcome to the Ravenclaw team! They're pretty much all fourth-years there, except for their Seeker, second-year Rubelt, amazing Seeker he is. Of course we all know that the Captain is Gregory Diddle. And the Gryffindor team, a wide range there, seventh-year Captain Sally Genista. As we well remember, Gryffindor scored a narrow victory over Ravenclaw last year with the Quidditch Cup, and it's Genista's last year so I'm sure she'd like to go out with a bang. She's playing Seeker for Gryffindor. 

"Captains are shaking hands and… there's the whistle! Mansfield has the Quaffle, Gryffindor in possession… oh that was a close one, that Bludger from Harvard nearly got him there. And it's Leeson, Leeson in possession and wow! What an interception by Gryffindor Chaser Blinks! It moves to King, King has the Quaffle and… now if that isn't a pass it's a long shot for the goal! Wait a minute – yes, it is! Score ten points to Gryffindor! The score rests at ten to zero."

The blue and red blurs were rocketing around the pitch, as the scores climbed. Thirty to twenty. Then Ravenclaw pulled up. Fifty to thirty. Sixty to thirty. The tables turned again. Seventy to sixty. Eighty to sixty. The two Seekers were combing the pitch, searching endlessly for that little glint of gold that would give away the position of the Snitch. Ninety to sixty. The Gryffindors were cheering. As far as they could see, the match was in the bag. And then.

"What's this? Ravenclaw Seeker Rubelt has pulled into a dive! Genista follows quickly but she's no match for that broom. Rubelt rides a top of the line Nimbus 1000…"

"Told you it was top of the line," James taunted in Sirius' ear

"…compared to that, Genista's Swiftstick is nothing." 

They watched as the two forms dived. A Gryffindor Bludger raced narrowly close to Rubelt's head. But it wasn't enough. A massive cheer rose up from the Ravenclaw stand. Rubelt pulled out of his dive, hand held aloft. He had the Snitch. 

*

James was livid.

"I can't believe Gryffindor lost," he snarled as they passed out of the stadium, close to the change rooms, and the other four nodded their agreement, not hearing the girls behind them chittering about how good Rubelt looked. "That was such an easy catch for the Snitch… ooooh if I was playing Seeker…."

"If you were playing Seeker, Potter, the other three houses would hallow your name. Against us you couldn't catch a cold."

The laughter rang out loud. All five of them turned. Behind them, with a group of about five or six friends was the second-year from the train. His sand and silver hair was blown in the wind. Then they realised. This cocky boy was none other than the Ravenclaw Seeker, in his blue and bronze team robes with his Nimbus 1000 over his shoulder and his six other team-mates gathered around him.

"P-P-Potter would so be a good Seeker," Peter said loudly, and the Ravenclaw team laughed louder. But the mousey boy went on, even though Remus and Mana were on his shoulders to try and silence him. "He could beat you hands down. You're just a-a-a… a lucky blowhard!"

The laughter stopped. The silver-fringed Seeker glared at Pettigrew out of raven-sharp eyes. Then his gaze turned to James.

"Beat me hands down, huh?" he snarled. "Alright then. We'll see about that. Midnight. On the pitch. Don't show and the whole school will know that you're the blowhard. And bring your cheerleaders. Wouldn't want them to miss your big failure."

"And if you lose?"

"Let's hope I don't."

"Pity," James sighed, "that I haven't got a broom."

The Ravenclaw Keeper strode forward and thrust the handle of his Shooting Star into James' hand. Rubelt laughed his sardonic caw.

"Now what's your excuse?"

"Hang on," James made to think. "Oh yeah. I don't need one now. After all, how hard can it be to beat a girl like you who never goes anywhere without his squad to look after him?"

In a flash the tall boy made to grab James' neck and he moved forward to greet it. It took the whole Ravenclaw team to drag their Seeker back and James merely stood there laughing. A thin mahogany wand whipped out from under his blue robes before James could draw his.

"_Indigus infernus_!"

A blast of violet flames burst out of his wand tip, striking James and sending him flying to the ground in a billow of smoke. Four wands were pointed at Rubelt who allowed himself to be backed away by his team, the majority of whom were all fourth and fifth-years.

"Hey come on, Rubelt. Keep your cool."

Sirius picked up the Keeper's broom and threw it to him as Remus and Peter pulled James back to his feet.

"He'll be here. Don't chicken out, bird-boy."

"If you push me, Potter," Rubelt snarled. "Just you wait."

"Go on," Sirius pressed. "I'm sure you've got other people to make miserable."

Rubelt and his team turned and headed into the locker rooms to change back into their school robes. Mana looked at James.

"You're not really going to come out tonight, are you?"

"Sure I am," he replied, batting at the ashy patch on his robes. The fire hadn't burnt, but it had covered him in cinders. Mana frowned.

"But what if you get caught? What if Rubelt's setting you up?"

"We won't even be seen. You'll see tonight."

"What makes you think I'm coming?" she asked. Sirius shrugged. 

"Moral voice?"

"That's what I'm trying to be right now but you're not paying attention."

"Come on, Mana, we'll probably only be gone for half an hour, if that. James'll catch that Snitch before Rubelt is even steady on his broom."

"Yeah," Peter agreed. "I'm sure James will prove that jerk wrong."

Mana looked from Sirius to Peter, then to Remus.

"Remus, you're sensible enough, surely…"

"I don't think it's right to sneak out after curfew…"

"Thank you!"

"…But I would like to see James play Rubelt."

"Oh Remus," Mana shook her head. "You'll get caught!"

"Trust me, we won't," James assured with a wink. "Come on Mana, you wouldn't miss it, would you?"

She looked up at Sirius, who smiled back that dreadfully charming smile. 

"Oh… well… okay."

*

At eleven thirty that evening, four little shadows stole across their dormitory, down the winding staircase and into the common room, where the fire was burning low behind the grate. The room was glowing dark orange. James went to open the portrait door, but Sirius held out his hand.

"Wait, what about Mana?"

"She probably won't come," James replied. "You know how she is."

"No, she will. Just… just wait a minute."

"Ooooh Sirius," James taunted in a whisper. "Something you're not telling us?"

"No!" he replied swiftly, and there was a swooshing sound like a cloak moving. They looked up and saw no one. James turned back to Sirius.

"She's not coming."

"Who's not coming?"

Remus spun and almost killed himself trying not to laugh at James' face. Somehow Mana had managed to appear between them and the door, without so much as being glimpsed.

"Where'd you come from?" he hissed, trying not to speak too loudly.

"Don't worry about that now. So if you're so sure we can get out of the castle without being seen, please feel quite free to example for me."

"Just follow the master," James grinned and she fell into place behind him as he silently pushed open the door. The corridor was empty of everything, even sound. Moonlight streamed through the windows casting long, barred pools of silver light across the floor. The light shifted as five furtive shadows scurried through the halls. Every eye was on the lookout for danger. The new caretaker, Argus Filch, was known to prowl around after dark searching for troublemakers to make miserable, and there was always the chance that they may be stumbled upon by Peeves, the school poltergeist. James slid through the shadows up to a tapestry. He waved them over and looked behind it.

"Okay. This passage leads right out into the grounds, close to the Quidditch pitch. Follow me, and _quietly. I know Filch is trying to get to know the school. I don't think he's got this exit pinned yet though, which is good, but the smallest sound could give us away. Watch out for the fifth step, it creaks."_

Nodding in understanding, they all slipped behind the tapestry and disappeared from view. The staircase wound in a haphazard way, spiralling, winding, strait. A thin corridor here and there before the stairs ran down again. Eventually night noises could be heard in the distance and the stairs levelled out into a passage. At the end of it, faint blue light was streaming in, and one of the goal hoops from the Quidditch pitch could be seen silhouetted against the moonlight. It was the quarter moon outside, and there were no clouds to be seen even though soon the grounds would be covered in sheets of thick, white snow.

James, leading the way, held up at the exit, looking around for any sign of movement. Seeing none, he again waved for them to follow and they flitted across the open space and into the shadows of the pitch. Stealing along the outside towards the locker rooms, they darted, one by one, into the stadium. It was empty, and the stands glimmered silently and tall in the pale light. Peter shivered in the breeze, having forgotten a coat and scarf. Remus looked around.

"There's no sign of the Ravenclaws. Do you think they set us up?"

"I wouldn't be in the least surprised," Sirius growled. 

"Keep to the shadows," James warned. "They may have tipped someone off that we're down here."

But there was no sign of anyone. Five minutes passed. Then ten. Twenty minutes later and still no one had shown. But after half an hour, Mana turned to Sirius to suggest they go back when movement on the other side of the pitch caught their eye. Melting out of the shadows, seven figures walked across the pitch towards them carrying a heavy-looking trunk. At their head were two tall boys, one slightly shorter than the other. Both were carrying brooms. Starlight glinted off the oak handle of one, and the words 'Nimbus 1000' stood out against it. Rubelt stopped walking a few feet from James, a devious smile on his face.

"Well, well. Looks like you're not the coward I took you for."

"Thanks for not keeping us waiting," he replied sarcastically. Two Ravenclaws were opening the chest and they pulled out something that glinted gold in the dim light. It flashed for a moment and then began to buzz, looking as if it wanted to fly away. Chaser Leeson handed it to Rubelt, who took it reverently. He held it where they could see it.

"The Golden Snitch," he sighed. "So. You think you can outfly me. Well, it's a good thing that the Snitch is enchanted not to leave the stadium. If Madam Hooch caught us out here, without permission, this late at night, we'd be out of school for sure."

"You sound so worried," Remus murmured disapprovingly.

"Of course. See, I have an alibi all worked out if we happen to get caught. Upon seeing a group of first-year students messing around on the pitch with the Quidditch equipment, we immediately came out to put a stop to them. We might just lose some points. You'd probably be expelled."

"And if it doesn't hold up?"

"Oh, it will," Rubelt assured. "Professor Gemini would never let anything become of her most prized Seeker. And I'll just vouch for the rest of the team. You guys," he laughed rudely, "are only fresh off the block. You don't have anything that could keep you in this school."

"Nice example you're setting to first-years," Remus grimaced. Rubelt shrugged.

"I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it."

Mana shook her head with little more than a sigh as the Ravenclaw Keeper handed James his broom.

"Well," Rubelt brought himself up to his full height. "Ready?"

"Just a second," Sirius interrupted and waved James back over to him. They crowded in to be able to hear his eager whisper. "We don't want to get busted, do we?"

"What do you suggest?" James asked quickly. 

"Nerf," Sirius rolled his eyes. "Honestly James, you didn't think of it yourself? We need a lookout. Someone who's quick on their feet, can imitate night birds and doesn't stand out in the dark."

"And that someone would be…"

"Mana," Sirius said, crossing his arms. She looked up quite suddenly, not having known this herself.

"Me?"

"Yes. I've seen you up and down the trees during breaks. James can take you up to the stand looking out over the yard to the castle, and if you see anyone coming, hoot twice and then trill. James'll come and get you as soon as you do, and we'll run to the nearest hideaway."

"But—"

"No buts, you're here, so you're going to make yourself useful."

Remus sighed. "Go on, Mana, if you don't, they'll just get difficult."

"And they're not difficult already?"

"You know Sirius," Peter added. "When he has an idea _everyone has to conform to it."_

Eventually she nodded, and as James mounted the broomstick, she climbed on behind him. Rubelt let out the most sardonic caw. 

"Going to play with the bird, are you Potter?"

He flew up to a good point and let Mana down. She scurried under the shadows so she couldn't be seen, and James turned and flew back down, drawing up level with Rubelt who had risen into the air, the Snitch still fluttering in his hand. 

"Alright, I let it go and we wait for one minute before we go after it."

"Got it."

He opened his hand and the little golden ball sped away. In silence Rubelt and James hovered there on their brooms, staring each other down when suddenly Rubelt took off. The minute was up. They shot backwards and forwards over the darkened pitch, the Ravenclaw team pointing lit wands to the sky to help shed some light on the Snitch. They darted in and out of shadows. The gilded glow from the wands was more of a hindrance than a help. Then he saw it.

Rubelt was up the other end of the pitch, and there was the Snitch, hovering a few dozen feet below him, towards the opposite end. He pointed the tip of the Shooting Star down. The broom obeyed his command swiftly and it was a moment before Rubelt registered. James' head start was well enough though. He rocketed down. The Snitch got ever nearer. His fingers touched one fluttery wing. He could hear Rubelt's broom so near. He felt his fingers tweeze the feathers. And as he jerked the little golden thing towards him, he heard something else lift above the buzz of the Snitch and the whoosh of the brooms.

"HOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! TRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

He spun in midair and threw the Snitch into Rubelt's hand, jetting away to retrieve their lookout from the bleachers. He could hear the Ravenclaws buzzing with confusion. Without a word or a pause Mana jumped onto the back of the broom and was off it before it had even touched the ground, sprinting away towards the other three, who were doing the bolt for a tiny grove of trees just outside the pitch. James threw the broom to the Keeper who just barely caught it, and took off after them. It was a few moments later when they finally caught on, and ran for the exit to the pitch. 

Meanwhile, the five first-years had reached the trees, and Mana sprang up into the boughs, pulling Sirius up who in turn hauled up Peter. Remus sprang up on his own and James was just clambering into the leaf-hung boughs when a brisk, stern and unimpressed teacher with spiky hair rounded on the Ravenclaws. They were clearly not fast enough to escape the eyes of Rolanda Hooch.

"Take off your scarves," Sirius hissed, shoving his beneath his robes. "They're a dead giveaway."

Luckily, the Ravenclaws hadn't seen where the first-years had run off to; otherwise they would really have been in trouble. Rubelt's 'alibi' was no good without any first-years to incriminate, so the five hung around to watch the ensuing fun. Hidden away in the trees, they could see and hear but not be seen themselves. Madam Hooch strode over fiercely, looking at all seven of them in turn. 

"Now this I never believed I would encounter from Quidditch players — and _Ravenclaws _no less! Stealing the Quidditch trunk… out of beds… whether this might be some sort of extreme practice session or not is beside the point! You most certainly know the rules pertaining to school property and your own curfews! Captain Diddle, what have you to say for yourself?"

Captain Diddle didn't seem to have much that he could say. So it seemed Rubelt believed in the old 'the truth will set you free' belief, and started forward.

"It's not what it looks like, Madam Hooch. There were these first-years out here. We caught them with the Quidditch trunk and were just about to turn them in when they ran off."

"Well if that's the case then, Master Rubelt, you'll quite easily be able to identify these students."

"That Potter boy and his friends."

"I see."

The four boys in the tree froze. Uh-oh. But Madam Hooch crossed her arms.

"Mr. Potter and his friends might have a reputation for being troublemakers, but they certainly do not have the gall or the resources to be able to take the trunk, nor sneak out into the grounds so late at night. I'm afraid I do not believe you. Twenty points each from Ravenclaw and you'll all be on detention for a week. That's just from me, so now we'll see what Professor Gemini wants to say about this. Now back up to the castle. March!"

A grin spread across Sirius' face, matched by Peter's look of aghast, James' smirk and Remus' expression of wonder. He gave an anticipating laugh.

"Oh-ho… they are in _so much trouble."_

*

Remus' brilliant idea for the next day was to keep well away from Rubelt. It was one they all agreed with, with perhaps maybe the possible exception of Sirius, who was all too eager to walk past him several times and say 'alright, Rubelt?' The reply was always a distinct movement towards his wand, nine times out of ten halted quite suddenly when thoughts of the night before haunted him. James began to think, partially because Peter had mentioned it to him, that Rubelt didn't often break the rules. When he was being an utter prat was an obvious exception. 

But of course that one time out of ten in which he didn't hesitate, Sirius came back up to Gryffindor Tower looking triumphant — but for the exception of a the few litres of slime that seemed to have been poured all over him. Rather, he looked like a big something with a head cold had sneezed on him. It took Remus and Peter a whole hour to clean the muck off with a Scouring Charm, all the while Sirius bragging about how Rubelt walked away 'with great dirty tufts of fur sticking out of his nose and ears, a blue face and was convinced that Professor McGonagall was the Virgin Mary'. He also disclosed the fact that said professor had subtracted ten points from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw for fighting in the halls, taking Ravenclaw's total losses up to 150 points in two days. They imagined their other housemates wouldn't have been too impressed.

The four boys, on the other hand (though Sirius' antics really didn't help them approve), couldn't have been happier. 

_Chapter 4 shouldn't take too long to get up, but should be done by some time during this week at the absolute latest __J__._

_So what could Rubelt have in store for the boys next time?_

_Will they get him before he can get them?_

_And whatever happened to Severus Snape?_

_All these answers and more in Chapter 4: There's No Day Like Snow Day. _


	4. There's no day like snow day

**4.**

_There's no day like snow day_

The snow had been falling richly on the grounds of the castle for some time now, covering everything in a great big sheet of rolling white power hills. When a particularly large snowfall covered everything in an even thicker sheet of talc, a generous Headmaster Dumbledore allowed the school the day off to enjoy the winter weather. So, bedecked in cloaks, gloves and scarves, a colourful menagerie converged on the grounds or the library or the Great Hall. Meanwhile the lists were being sent around to see who would be staying over Christmas. So though the grounds were choked with snow, four mischievous first-years saw before them a glittering gold mine with a neon sign saying 'major mischief mayhem'. 

Now more accustomed than anything to making mischief, James, Sirius, Peter and Remus were becoming known as the Marauders. They had taken a liking to planning elaborate schemes (the most elaborate and improbable of all tended to belong to Sirius) that had the capability of getting them into some serious trouble if they were caught. They never were. Truth be told, it was the event that night at the Quidditch pitch that had instilled in them the love of 'maraudering'. 

Now, standing on the bottom stone step on the verge of a great white playground, Sirius launched himself unexpectedly at James and crash-tackled him into the snow. They rolled a fair way, the downgrade of the snowy slope carrying them pretty far. Snow flew. James wore it, his glasses askew, and tossed an unpacked handful Sirius' own face. They were so caught up in their own games that neither of them saw two balls come flying — until they connected with each head. A quick investigation revealed that the perpetrators were Remus and Peter, standing above them behind a wall of snow they'd piled up while the two black-haired boys were having it out in a snow-bound wrestle. Two balls were returned, but they ducked behind the snow wall and were missed. 

"Mwahahaha!" Sirius bellowed, running full pelt at the wall and bringing it down on top of his two friends. Peter sprang up, a rather large ball of snow in his hands. 

"Snow war!"

That was it. The ball got thrown, missed, and connected with the head of a retreating Hufflepuff. The boy, who was in their year, fell face flat in the snow before clambering out, glaring at them. Theodore Dwyer bent and scooped up his own fistful and pegged it ruthlessly at Sirius, who he thought was responsible. Remus sprang to his feet and kicked snow in a massive spray at the yellow and black-scarved boy, who ran off in reply. But Sirius was on his feet, the most mischievous grin on his face.

"Sirius has an idea," Remus sighed, throwing another ball to save face at James. Sirius had lifted the hems of his robes and was piling snow into them. Soon, the entire front of his robes was up and filed with the biggest, loosest snowball ever. Whoever wore that would be pulling snow out of places they didn't know they had for ages. Then Peter sat up from the snow angel he was making in the snow.

"Is that Rubelt?"

"Uh-oh," James and Remus sprang forward and grabbed Sirius around the legs as he took some uneven steps towards the Ravenclaw Seeker that he had so much tribulation with. The black-haired boy fell flat in the snow, losing his snowball in the process. He was just about to protest very loudly and attract Rubelt by another means, when suddenly a blonde Slytherin girl with a pretty face came racing over to the Seeker.

"Oh Marcellius! Wait for me!"

"_Marcellius_!" Sirius cried with utter euphoria. Both the Slytherin and the Ravenclaw looked and stared. James and Remus were staring and Peter was beginning to chuckle.

"Do you have a problem with that, brat?"

"What a girly name!" Peter laughed, falling backwards in the snow laughing.

"Oh Marcellius, Marcellius would you like me to do your nails for you daaaahling?" Sirius rolled over onto his back and fixed Rubelt with his glittering brown eyes. Rubelt's blue ones gleamed with unspeakable fury. 

"Do you know those boys?" the Slytherin asked him. Rubelt frowned menacingly at them and turned to her.

"They're just some first-years trying to look good. Don't you worry about them, Francesca." 

"Yes, don't mind us, _Francesca dahling," Sirius chortled. James and Remus now made absolutely no effort to silence him. His horridly fake Yorkshire accent was more than amusing. The blonde Slytherin stared down her nose at him. She turned to Rubelt._

"He's cute. That's probably the only thing he's got between me and belting his mouth closed."

"Oh don't say that," Remus rolled his eyes and trailed off. James finally got around to fixing his glasses and laughed quite loudly.

"Isn't it unfortunate that you have to put down the first-years? Tch, tch, tch… of course, if you hadn't lost Ravenclaw 150 points a few weeks ago… can't say it would've done much for your ego. Or maybe you're still sore about that little Quidditch incident."

 "I would insist that you were blushing, master Rubelt," Remus barely smirked, "But for the fact that your face still seems a little blue to me."

Rather than blue, Rubelt's face had gone white.

"I think he heard you, Remus," Peter laughed. "Hard, considering I think he may still have a bit of hair in his ears."

"Mmm," James raised a hand to his nose and waved the other in front of his face. "Seems he still has some in his nose as well."

"Marcellius, what're they talking about?" Francesca asked. The Seeker stumbled on his tongue.

"N… nothing. Come on, let's go."

"Oh so she doesn't know?" Peter laughed harder. "Was that the Curse of the Bogies, Rubelt? My commendations. It's a hard one I hear."

"Curse of the what?"

"Oh, the Curse of the Bogies, you know, where it curses you with a dirty great load of BOGIES!" Sirius enlightened her. "But I believe a Confundus hex was in good measure in reply, no Rubelt?"

"Shut… up," he snarled under his breath. 

"We could go into more detail," James replied. "Would that ruin you, _Marcellius_?"

"Not as much as it could ruin your faces," he grated out. James waved a finger at him, clucking his tongue

"Now, now. Why don't we come to an agreement here? How about… five Galleons and we forget the whole thing happened?"

"No, four," Peter cut in. "Otherwise we wouldn't be able to split it."

"Like I _really _have four Galleons," Rubelt sneered in reply. Obviously Sirius didn't believe him.

"Five now, and I'll use the extra one to buy a… errrr… _certain person _a really good Christmas present."

"I don't have five Galleons."

"Don't pay up now and we'll make it either double or tell," Remus taunted, an out of character note in his voice. Obviously the thought of wheedling money from someone they all agreed they didn't like was a tempting prospect even to him. Francesca had fixed Rubelt with quite a strange look, and, seeing it, he reached inside his robes and pulled out a pouch.

"Look. Here's six. Buy her something nice," he pushed the six golden coins into Sirius' hands. Francesca's look melted away at the expression of sheer ecstasy on the four boy's faces. It seemed she was going to forget all about their taunts because her friend had seemingly done something wonderful for four little first-years. Rubelt on the other hand, managed to glare through his fading look of urgency.

"Stay out of my way. This won't happen again," he hissed. They all laughed and waved goodbye as he walked away. Sirius stared at the gold in his gloved hands. James, Remus and Peter leaned over his shoulders, ogling at it. He eventually sat up, cradling the coins like they were fragile china.

"Okay, one each, right?"

"Right," James agreed, taking one and flipping it in his hands, looking at the shiny dragon minted onto the metal. Remus and Peter took their coins too, looking down at the three left in Sirius' hands.

"Well, that's one for me," he murmured, pocketing one of the three coins. Then he looked long and hard at the remaining two. Remus leaned on him.

"So who's this certain someone you want to buy a nice present for?"

"Don't you know?" James smirked. "Sirius has a crush on —"

"If you know don't say it!" Sirius squealed, clamping a hand over his mouth. James responded by pushing his hand away.

"If I didn't want to see you try and impress her, I'd con you out of one of those coins. And I do love your infallible tact, Sirius. Pretending to be interested in just about every other girl in the year is so the way to get her to like you," James rolled his eyes sarcastically. "But just to be sure that you're not hoodwinking us, I think we should keep those two coins somewhere where we can all check on them from time to time."

"Fair enough," Sirius agreed. "We'll put a thief's curse on it. Remus knows how to do that, don't you Remus?"

"Yeah, kinda," he replied. Then he stood up, a lump of snow in his mittened hand. "But for now, put those away. Let's go throw some snowballs at Theodore Dwyer. He's over there talking to Marc." 

"Whooooooo!" Sirius sprang to his feet and picked up two snowballs, one for each hand, and ran like a rabbit over to the Hufflepuff, slamming the two balls right into his hair. Peter, meanwhile, was making eyes for his snow angel using the perfect circle of his glittery coin.

"Who?" Remus asked James, now that Sirius had run away to torment Theodore and Marcus.

"I swore I wouldn't say."

"Oh come on, do we keep secrets?"

"I wouldn't have known if I hadn't seen it scribbled in the back of his diary, which he stupidly left open the other day while he was out stealing éclairs from Professor Dabble-gin's office."

"Oh dear," Remus sighed. "I don't know what would've been worse. The repercussions of stealing or the sugar rush that would surely have followed."

"I'd wager on the sugar," Peter sighed. "Only the sugar could possibly account for what he did to Midgeon and Figwelda."

"Where was I at this point in time, and why haven't I heard this yet?" Remus asked, confused. James laughed his reply.

"You were outside the staffroom, talking to Professor Dabble-gin about standard hexes. And then I believe you were in the library, looking up standard hexes. And if what I understand is correct, after that you were hiding behind a tapestry on the fourth floor, experimenting with those standard hexes."

Remus smirked. "What can I say? I learned a lot."

"What can I say? You missed a lot."

A snowball came flying out of nowhere and connected with James' head. Looking up, he saw Sirius had teamed up with Marcus and Theodore, and all three of them had armfuls of snowballs. One was being bounced in Marcus' gloved hand, an intensely evil expression on his face.

"You traitor!" James bellowed at Sirius, who had thrown the ball. "Get back over here you side-switching prat!"

The answer was another snowball.

"_NEV-AIR_!" he cried in a horrible French accent, again running the stretch between them and the other two boys, wasting all his snowballs on James alone as he emptied his entire armful onto him. Remus laughed mildly and tipped a handful of snow into Sirius' sleek, snow-spotted hair. He looked up quite suddenly.

"Did you just put snow in my hair?"

"Yeah."

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" he raised his hands to his head and wheeled around on the spot before dropping into an imitation of a dead faint in the powder, faking death. Marcus had wandered over, Theodore tagging along behind.

"He needs his shots," the Gryffindor boy told them. "I think he may be rabid."

"Or some really intense counselling," Theodore added. Marcus shook his head.

"Nah. I put my money on rabid."

"Did I hear money?" Sirius suddenly came back to life, but James kicked snow over him.

"Stay dead. You've scabbed enough money off people today."

He stayed dead still on his back for a while, watching the rest of the grounds upside down while his other friends had a chat over the top of him. Marcus looked over their shoulders at Peter, who was now detailing his snow angel's face.

"Hey Pettigrew, play in the snow like a real man," he brought up one of his snowballs and threw it at him, but missed. Peter turned back to his snow angel. "Sissy," Marcus snorted. "Should'a been in Hufflepuff. Oh, no offence intended, Theo."

The Hufflepuff boy had begun to glare, but it faded. Marcus sniggered and turned to the Marauders again.

"That prank in the common room last week was a classic. How do you think up these things?"

"He usually does," James replied, giving the suddenly rather comatose Sirius a nudge with his foot. "He's the mad one, you see. But I'm not going to spill the dynamics of this team, sorry Marc."

"A good entertainer never reveals his secrets."

"Exactly."

"What on earth was Sirius on when he pulled it, though?" Marcus was curious. Remus sniggered.

"Éclairs, or so I hear…"

"What's wrong with him?" Theodore asked suddenly, looking down at Sirius' snow-covered, prostrate form lying in the middle of the close circle they had made. "Is he suddenly… sick?"

"No," Peter sighed, from where he was sitting making a snow wall around him. They could only see the top of his blonde head. "He finished off the éclairs this morning. I think he's coming down off his sugar high."

"That sure does explain a fair bit," Theodore murmured. Suddenly though, as if triggered by Theodore's words, Sirius rolled over and sprang to his feet, sprinting away across the grounds. "And where's he going?"

"Oh," Remus squinted to see what Sirius was doing over the other side of the white lawn. "Of course."

"What?" James peered over. "Oh. Girls."

"Not just any girls," Marcus sniggered, "Our girls."

"Oh leave him alone, at least he's tormenting something else," Peter laughed from behind his snow wall. Remus looked at him.

"What are you doing, Peter?"

A snowball flew and smacked Marcus in the head.

"Playing in the snow like a real man!" he cried and jumped up, pelting them with snowballs. 

_(Who's this certain someone Sirius speaks of?_

_What will our boys do over the Christmas break?_

_Will Professor Dabble-gin *ever* be able to eat éclairs in peace?_

_And where *is* that Severus Snape? All this and more in_

_Chapter 5: The Owl, the Slytherin and the Invisibility Cloak)_


	5. The Owl, the Slytherin and the Invisibil...

**5.**

_The Owl, the Slytherin and the Invisibility Cloak_

Having opted not to stay for the Christmas break, the four pranksters went home for Christmas. Snow was falling everywhere over Britain; in James' hometown of Godric Hollow, Sirius' Grimmauld Place abode in London, Peter's little family place around the same area and Remus was off somewhere he hadn't said. Back home, the four of them didn't know what to make of their life alone. They had become so incredibly used to barging around their own six-bed dormitory, throwing pillows at each other, sneaking around the castle late at night looking for a snack from a teacher's office… now they were back home to enjoy Christmas with their families, completely sundered from each other. But they weren't without a means of contact.

Several times over the break, four owls could be traced crisscrossing the countryside. Sure they weren't apart for long, but they were already plotting their next adventures for the next term. 

**_Dear James,_**

**_        Mum's being an overbearing hag again. I had to steal Falcon. So are we still on for Diagon Alley this weekend? I'll meet you at the Leaky Cauldron, okay?_**

**_-Sirius_**

_Dear Sirius,_

_        James told me to meet him at the Leaky Cauldron on Saturday. Are you going to be there too?_

_-Remus_

Dear Remus,

        Like my new owl? Mum bought him for me yesterday, his name's Nibbs; I just love his cute face. Are you going to Diagon Alley with Sirius and James? I have a bit extra pocket money to spend, including that Galleon I got when we blackmailed Rubelt *laughs*. I need to grab some stuff before we start school again. 

-Peter

**Dear Marauders,**

**        Meet me tomorrow at the entrance to Diagon Alley, and we'll run around for a while. Remember, Sirius still needs to buy that certain someone a special Christmas present (thanks Peter for reminding me about the money). See you all tomorrow!"**

**-James**

**_Dear Peter,_**

**_        Tomorrow I will kill you. Have fun living._**

**_-Love Sirius._**

The letters and owls flashing backwards and forwards between the four boys ceased on Saturday morning not long before Christmas. Instead, four mothers dragging four boys happened to converge on the seedy pub The Leaky Cauldron, and the instant those four boys saw each other, they were locked together again. Meanwhile, the Marauders' mothers had decided to get acquainted. James led the way out the back door of the pub and pulled out his wand, tapping the third brick from the left above the trash can. They waited until the archway into the alley had opened, then tore through as one into the hordes of witches and wizards.

"Where first?" asked Peter as they pulled up outside Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour. Sirius made a move to throttle him.

"The graveyard to bury you."

"What did I do?" Peter whimpered nervously, cringing from Sirius' extremely fake maniacal expression.

"You reminded us that Sirius has a silly schoolboy crush," Remus replied, adjusting the scarf he was wearing and hiking up his robes. "By mentioning the money we got off Rubelt."

"Oh well, we'll know who it is when she gets her present," James sighed, and pushed between Sirius and Peter. Sirius suddenly had an idea.

"I don't want her to know it's from me," he said. The other three gazed at him blankly. "Can we say it was from all of us?"

"Do we know her?" Peter asked. 

"I would certainly say so, yes."

"Ok then," James said simply. "If you want it done that way. But we're not pitching in any money."

"That's alright," Sirius replied, relief spreading over his face. "Let's go look."

They wandered along the snowy, cobblestoned street that was Diagon Alley. Powdered windows showed magical toys, Quality Quidditch Supplies held some winter gear, and some cats in the window of the Magical Menagerie were wearing fluffy coats. The Apothecary was near, and it was towards this that Peter walked.

"I need to refill my supplies. You guys used all my lacewings and powdered moonstone making that concoction to feed to Evan Rosier's cat."

"Okay," Sirius replied, hardly hearing him. He was looking in the window of the Menagerie. Peter walked away, and James and Remus hovered over Sirius' shoulders as he looked into the window at the animals. Then he walked into the store. 

"Gonna buy her a pet?" James snorted, but to his surprise, Sirius nodded. "You're not serious, Sirius?"

"We'll see," he chirped, and began to look into the cages. Remus gazed around the store in his usual calm way, gazing at each and every animal in turn.

"So Sirius, do you actually know what sort of animals she likes?"

"Sure I do. She told me she's always wanted a owl but her mum wouldn't buy her one."

"Doesn't she just use the owls at school?" 

"It's not that same if it's not your bird," he called, somewhere behind a stack of cages holding litters of forked tailed pups, curious-looking cats and creatures that looked like a cross between both.

"In a way, true," Remus agreed. Sirius suddenly cried out, and the two boys ran up to him. It held a young hawk, one golden eye staring at them. 

"Wow," Sirius gaped at it. James managed, after a moment, to tear him away from the sight of the bird.

"No hawks. Just buy her an owl. Here, we'll give you some extra coins. There's a nice black one over there, I'm sure she'd like it, but I'm not sure Dumbledore would like a hawk as much as this person of yours might."

Sirius seemed very crestfallen and James' true words, but had quickly perked back up again when he saw the owl James had mentioned. He strode quickly to the cage as Peter came in through the door which dingled as he opened it. James turned to Remus.

"Attention span of a fly."

"Oh yeah."

"Here Sirius, you're paying me back," James threw his money pouch to his friend, who caught it with a gleam in his eyes and turned to the witch behind the counter as Peter looked into the cage at the glossy black owl. 

"Miss, how much is this owl?"

"Fifteen Galleons, love. You want him?"

Sirius looked to James for confirmation, and he nodded.

"Sure."

"Good choice, love," she replied, stepping out from behind the counter with another cage. She came over to the cage and put a gloved hand inside, drawing the owl out through the cage door and putting him into the other cage. He hooted loudly as she closed the door behind him, and was taken back over to the counter. "That'll be fifteen Galleons dear. Thanks. So, Hogwarts students, if I'm not mistaken? Enjoying your Christmas break? Eager to get back to school?"

"In a manner of speaking," Sirius sniggered. "See there's this kid…"

"Ahhh yes, I know how you little boys work."

"Thank you," the four of them thanked the witch and left the store, the black owl in its cage being carried along by Sirius who used the other hand to hand James' money pouch back. It was till remarkably heavy.

"Listen, just pay me back half of it. Just give me five Galleons. Think of it as my present to her too."

"You sure?" Sirius asked as they continued to head up the street. James nodded.

"Sure. What're friends for?"

"We should get each other Christmas presents now," Peter suggested, and they all agreed. Sirius said he was going to go back to the Leaky Cauldron to leave the bird with his mum while they did so. Then they decided to meet back at Florean Fortescue's in an hour. Sirius was really only going back to wean more money out of his rather tight mother. James wandered away to Flourish & Blotts, Remus headed in the direction of Quality Quidditch Supplies and Peter looked around the street where he was in confusion for a while before heading into a candy shop close by.

*

"This is sooo cool," Sirius laughed, throwing a pillow at James. Peter and Remus were sitting on the bed, watching as the two boys threw soft things across the room at each other, crumpling up discarded bits of wrapping and pegging them at one another's head. 

"I put thirty Sickles on Sirius having had enough first."

"You're on," Peter agreed. They watched the volleyball match of pillows and paper as they flew around the room in the aftermath of Christmas morning. All of them still in bedclothes, they had spent the last two nights at the Potter's creating havoc in the Godric Hollow cottage. James grabbed a cushy pillow and charged Sirius down, bowling him over and pinning him to the ground with the great big cushion. Sirius didn't fight back, breathing hard, flat on his back on the carpets. Remus turned lazily to Peter, his hand out.

"Pay up."

"Awww," Peter turned the silver coins into his hand. "How'd you know?"

"I gave him rock candy for Christmas. He was bound to come off that sugar high."

"Sure was nice of your mum to let us stay, James," Peter said as he pulled the pillow off Sirius and flopped backwards on the rug himself.

"That's alright, Petie," James grinned, flicking paper at Sirius who appeared to be looking through his gifts for Remus' rock candy. "No Sirius! No more sugar!" 

He dive-tackled his laughing friend before he could ingest any more of the bright-coloured sweets. They were still struggling over the box of candy when a great black owl suddenly swooped in through the window, dropped a bundle in the middle of the floor and perched on top of James' desk chair. Sirius and James stopped wrestling that instant and scurried across the floor on all fours as Remus and Peter got down off the bed and they crowded around the package. They all looked down at the strange parcel. There was a note attached.

"Hmmm… who's this from?" Remus tugged off the note and opened it. Over on the desk chair, the owl hooted loudly.

"What does it say, Remmy?" Sirius asked. Remus read the note aloud.

_Dear Marauders._

_        This was mine, but I really don't have a use for it. I was given to me by a friend, so I'm not worried about passing it on to you, seeing as you'll make much better use of it. To ask you to be sensible would be a waste of breath, so instead I'll say 'have fun'. Merry Christmas._

They all looked at the parcel again, with renewed interest.

"Does is say who it was from?" Peter asked. Remus turned the note in his hand and shook his head. Sirius gave one of the binding cords a hard tug, dislodging it.

"Let's see what it is!"

They all took a corner of the squishy parcel and began to pull away the cord and paper. Silver rope and crumply gold paper was scattered as they revealed what sat inside the package. It sat, neatly folded, on its shiny paper. A bundle of shimmery cloth, with celestial visible on it. They stared at it for a while, and then James stood up and unravelled it. 

"It looks like some sort of robe," Remus said, looking up at it as James held it out at arms length to have a good look at it. 

"It's got some really strange patterns on it," he said, looking it up and down. "Why would someone give us an old cloak?"

"Try it on," said Sirius, through a mouthful of cake, which had come from the box of chocolate cupcakes also in the parcel. James swung it over his shoulders. Suddenly he had no shoulders. In fact, there was no James. All that was left of him was his head floating in midair. Sirius choked on his muffin and needed Peter to slap him hard on the back to dislodge it when he saw. Remus was on his feet as if he'd sat on a thistle. 

"That's an _Invisibility Cloak_!" he breathed, reaching out and somehow finding the material, running his hand down it. "_Someone sent us an Invisibility Cloak_!"

"Who'd send us something like this?" James asked, looking down at the note again as he slipped the cloak from his shoulders. Peter picked it up then and started to look at it.

"Well who gets to keep it?" asked Remus suddenly, his eyes on the cloak. Sirius raised his hand and gulped down his mouthful of cake.

"I think I should," he said, and to their seemingly aghast faces, he explained. "After all, I'm the one who does a lot of sneaking around and stuff, and I think up a lot of our plans."

"You?" James gave a mad cackle. "I wouldn't trust you with my spare robes, let alone an Invisibility Cloak."

"Maybe I should keep it," Remus suggested. "I'm clearly the most sensible one here, and I wouldn't let certain people use it to go out at night and steal food from the staffroom."

"I think James should keep it," Peter said suddenly, and they looked at him. He shrugged, letting the fabric run through his short little fingers. "After all, isn't he, like, our undisputed leader?"

"_Undisputed leader_?" Sirius almost choked again. "James couldn't lead a pack of wolves on his own scent!"

"Oh yes he could… but no, really," Remus now agreed with Peter. "You and James do a lot of the hard work in this team, and James is the more sensible of you both. Not to mention," he added after a moment, "we are in his house."

Sirius pouted for a moment as the majority voted James would keep the cloak. James shrugged.

"Fair enough, I'm not complaining. But we'll have it so everyone can use it if they need or want. _Within reason," he turned suddenly to Sirius, whose face suddenly bore the most mischievous grin. The grin faded immediately. _

"But it still doesn't answer the question of who sent it to us," Remus frowned, looking down at the note again. Sirius took it from him and read it through, starting on his second cake.

"Well, it must be someone who likes us and knows what we get up to," Peter said. Remus nodded. 

"And someone who is really generous and likes to help…"

"And someone who knows that Sirius likes chocolate cake," James added on, staring at Sirius as he scoffed down the cupcake. Suddenly the boy froze, squinted at the writing then looked up at the big black owl. He spent a moment trying to swallow the cake, then spoke.

"I know which someone, too," Sirius said, his eyes on the black owl, which at that moment screeched loudly. 

*

Not long after New Year's Day, the four boys were back on the Hogwarts Express on their way back to school. The trip through snow covered countryside into Scotland from Kings Cross Station was uneventful, if you excused the excited post-Christmas students running helter-skelter up and down the carriages with new self-throwing Frisbees, new pets and flashing the occasional new broom. Someone screamed that a boy named Kip Jordan had a bird-eating spider. They saw the face of Rohan Wood the Quidditch commentator chasing Marcellius Rubelt and Fenwick Blinks up the carriage. Apparently they'd stolen his new self-inking Quick Quotes quill. The Ravenclaw Seeker seemed to be taking special measures to ignore the boys. Two blonde Slytherin girls walked up the carriage and the one named Francesca gave them a little wave that wasn't added to by her snooty friend Narcissa, who made a measure to glare at Sirius.

"Cousin," he explained with a shrug. At one point during the trip five girls flashed past their window, Mana, Midgeon, Louise, Alice and Figwelda. They were throwing Puffapods at a group of Hufflepuff boys which included Theodore Dwyer. Midway through the afternoon, the lunch trolley witch somehow managed to push her way up the carriage through the groups of tittering students for a stop at every compartment. Loaded up with Galleons, Sickles and Knuts, the four boys satisfied their hunger with a lot of sweets from the trolley. It was all they could do to keep the restless Sirius occupied. That task became even harder after the Chocolate Frogs kicked in. They needn't have worried. 

The five girls came pelting down the carriage again in the opposite direction and drew to a sudden halt that made them all crash into each other as Midgeon flung open the door.

"Hullo boys!" she chirped gaily. "Got a job for ya!"

"A job?" Peter looked up. "Sounds a little hard."

"Pay ya for it," she added slyly, letting a handful of coins slide from one hand to the other.

"What do you want, Midgeon?" James asked, ignoring Remus' visual advice to ignore her. 

"See, there's this absolute churl down the other end of the train. Total git, looks like he's wearing the Leaky Cauldron's fry-pot in his hair. Some pure-blooded skunk. He made Lily cry… called her a Mudblood."

"What's his name?" James asked, immediately on his feet. "Is it Rubelt?"

"No," Figwelda said. "He's a Slytherin in our year. What did you say his name was again, Mana?"

"Severus," she replied. Remus looked up.

"Severus Snape?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"Isn't he that total freak we have Defence Against the Dark Arts with?" Sirius asked, looking up at James, who nodded. Sirius laughed and stood up. "Forget paying us, Midgie, we'll do this one for free! I've always wanted an excuse to harass that git."

"Since when has the lack of an excuse stopped you?" Peter asked, still in his seat. Sirius had to think about this, but then he shrugged. 

"Show us the way, girls!"

And they did. Begrudgingly the other two boys got out of their seats and pulled out their wands, following Midgeon and the girls down the train. Anywhere the Marauders went, especially if they were armed, drew attention. Heads poked out of compartments to see where they were being led.

"Did you tell him you were coming for us?" Peter asked quietly. Figwelda shook her head.

"Nah. Midgie just said 'you're in so much trouble. I swear you'll regret this', then suddenly she runs off, comes bowling down the carriage and pulls up at your door."

"He's gonna regret it, alright," Sirius chirped. "No one insults a girl! Especially friends of the Marauders!"

Midgeon drew to a halt. There was the sound of a compartment door opening, and she turned to the person inside.

"Hello Severus, would you like to regret it now?"

"Oh please."

"Boys," Midgeon invited triumphantly, and the Marauders filed into the compartment. Severus Snape was a Slytherin. He was tall and gangly, hardly what anyone would call by any means attractive with lanky strands of hair bunched into oily clumps that looked, having been meticulously combed, like runny rivulets of tar. He glared fiercely at the four boys as they seated themselves opposite him, James crossing his arms and the others following suit. The girls moved back from the door. For a while no one said anything, though Sirius twiddled his wand on his fingertips, the tip emitting blue sparks and pops. Eventually James nodded, as if accepting something someone had just said to him.  

"Mudblood," he recalled as if repeating the word being said only seconds before. "Nice thing to call a harmless girl."

Severus glared.

"Now we're a lot of things," Sirius began, twirling the wand faster. "We're troublemakers, jokers, occasionally rude… but there are some things we're not."

"We're not slimy, greasy haired pigs," Peter added, "Who look (and smell) like we've taken a dip in something that went bad in Potions."

"And we're not vulgar, impolite and uncultured gits," Remus finished. It seemed almost rehearsed, with the ease each spoke off the other.

"And as such," James began on a new thread, "We have things we tolerate and don't tolerate."

"We tolerate mischief of any make or form. And lots of candy," Sirius added as a post-thought. Peter agreed.

"We can take a joke on us; we take what we give and give what we get."

"But we don't tolerate people who go around insulting, with such uncouth language, our friends, or anyone else for that matter."

"And furthermore," James finished, "It has been brought to our attention that someone in this compartment happened to mortally hurt the feelings of a friend of ours. Now considering that you, sir, are unaccompanied…"

"Because you have no friends, you loser," Sirius threw in.

"…Then we will assume that you're the one to blame. Did you, Severus, call Lily Evans a Mudblood?"

"So what if I did?" he said at last. "She is, isn't she? What's it to you four halfwits if I did anyway?"

SNAP!

With a crack and a flash, a wand went off. When the smoke cleared, The Marauders were all on their feet, looking down at Severus who had slid off his chair. It was hard to tell what had happened to him. It seemed that he'd been hit by more than one hex. His wobbly legs seemed to be trying to dance dizzily fast, but he was in absolute fits of laughter. His wand was in one hand, but he was laughing too hard to get out the hex he himself was trying to utter. Sirius tipped an imaginary hat.

"Nice to meet you, Snape," he chirped, and headed out of the compartment in the lead of the other three, Peter looking down as he brought up the rear and saying:

"I hope you learned your lesson."

The girls clapped and escorted their heroes back to their own compartment amidst the stares of other students. As they sat back down, the girls cleared off, and the last person to leave was Figwelda, who stuck her head around the door.

"Nice job, boys."

"No problem, Figgy," Peter laughed, sitting back down. Figwelda grinned.

"She loves Achilles, by the way."

"Is that the black owl we bought her?" Remus asked, giving Sirius a discreet but purposeful glance.

"Yeah. Nice of you."

"Tell her thank you from us. She'll know why."

"Sure boys. And thank _you."_

With that she disappeared out of their compartment and vanished, and the rest of the trip passed in peace, accented by the far off hysterics of a certain Slytherin.


	6. The cloakcovered caper

**6.**

_The Cloak-Covered Caper_

The new term was well underway. The time flew by so fast, past Quidditch matches, through incredibly boring History of Magic lessons and dark Potions dungeon classes, over Transfiguration and turning rabbits into slippers, skirting barely the tedious hex deflections of Defence Against the Dark Arts and some healthy inter-house rivalry, which somehow resulted in two Leg-locked Gryffindors and a Slytherin who was convinced he was a chicken. 

James, Sirius, Peter and Remus were itching to try out the Invisibility Cloak. They managed to get all the way past Easter without anything more adventurous than running around the common room teasing people with it. They had been far too caught up in everything that was going on with school to even think about sneaking out, and Sirius was happy with another load of egg-shaped cakes that were given to him by his friend on Easter. She'd left the same for the other Marauders, who wasted no time in tearing into them. Stuffed on Easter chocolate and cakes, not even Sirius could stomach the thought of stealing more of Dabble-gin's éclairs. 

Easter came and went, and still there was no mischief worth the presence of the Cloak. Exams were drawing close and now their thoughts of haring around the school without anyone being able to see them were driven out of mind by the presence of a tight schedule made by Lily Evans, passed on to them by Midgeon who'd become the boy's devious informant. So they followed Lily's schedule, maybe with the exception of Sirius who'd somehow come into the possession of more rock candy and was racing around the boy's dormitory like a jackrabbit on hot iron most often. The plus to this was he seemed to take in a lot more when he was bouncing off walls.

But aside from all the candy and exams and boring classes, something was beginning to niggle at that back of their minds. Always, in the morning after a particularly messy night in the common room, it was always spotlessly clean. One Sunday morning though, three of the four boys were standing in the middle of the room, looking around with an active curiosity now. James frowned a little.

"Why is it always so clean?"

"Maybe it's enchanted to clean itself up when everyone goes to bed?" Peter suggested, and Sirius shook his head.

"No, it must be the girls. You all know what they're like when it comes to mess."

"I don't think the girls would go to this extreme, though," James frowned. It wasn't troubling as much as it was curious. James then turned to Sirius.

"Where's Remmy?"

"Still asleep. He said he didn't feel well."

"Oh."

"It's not like he's missing anything, really," Peter said. "All we're doing is standing here discussing the reasons as to why the common room is clean every day."

"Hullo boys!" 

They turned and looked as three girls came down from their dormitory. Midgeon, Mana and Alice stopped in front of them as they entered to common room. Midgeon winked one big, dark-lidded green eye at them. Alice's eyes scanned the three of them.

"Where's Lupin?"

"Sick," James replied. "He was sick about this time last month too."

"Yah, well, what can ya do?" Midgeon chirruped, though she did seem concerned. Sirius had to make a sudden observation.

"You know, Midgie, if Mana had green eyes and curly hair, you'd look a lot alike!"

The two dark-headed girls stared at him. Then they glanced at each other and started to chuckle. Midgeon reached forward and scuffed his hair up.

"Now, spend another five seconds straightening your hair again, Black."

Mana reached out and flattened it again. "Three second presentability every day, Sirius."

"You said a while ago that you didn't give a Fizzing Whizzbee about how you looked," Sirius joked, and Mana gave him a cock-eyed look. He grinned. Then his grin faltered a moment and he turned to Midgeon.

"Midgie, I need to ask you something alone."

"Sure Black."

They two of them walked away and Alice turned back to James and Peter.

"So what are you two wing-nuts up to now?" she asked. The two boys shrugged.

"Just discussing the common room being clean," James replied to her. Mana and Alice both nodded their agreement and gave a small chuckle.

"Mighty good job those house-elves do on the rooms, isn't it?" Alice asked with a smile. James stared.

"House-elves?"

"Yeah, there must be hundreds. They work all over the castle. Me and Lily saw some a week ago come in to tidy the dormitories."

"I didn't know there were house-elves in Hogwarts," Peter admitted, looking at James. James agreed.

"We have a house-elf," James declared. "His name's Niggle. Mum doesn't know where she'd be without him. Sirius has one too. Kreacher, I think he said was the name."

"We have one," Alice said. "But ma felt sorry for the poor blighter and gave him clothes. But he begged not to have to leave the house, so she let him stay in our cupboard under the stairs. Loves to help out, does the shopping for us sometimes."

The two girls farewelled them and departed towards the Great Hall for breakfast. Sirius and Midgeon came back over, both of them looking triumphant.

"What was all that about?" James asked Sirius as Midgeon waved goodbye and left after her two other friends. Sirius crossed his arms and laughed.

"Midgie told me where the door to the kitchens is. She has a friend in Hufflepuff who walks past the door on their way to the Hufflepuff common room. Apparently it's behind a painting of fruit in one of the corridors. But as to how to get in, they don't know. So here's the deal…"

*

The day was uneventful. Sirius and Remus got permission from Madam Hooch to practice riding broomsticks out in the grounds while she supervised, Peter more comfortable down on the ground than up in the air. Earlier that year, during second term, the new Shooting Stars had arrived and their first broomstick lesson had gone by without a hitch, if you discluded the fact that for some reason Snape's hands kept sliding off the broomstick he was trying to grip. The fact that a birch wand was pointed at him might or might not have had anything to do with it.

They were zooming around in the air high above the ground, the wind in their faces blowing their hair back when James rushed by Sirius.

"Have you seen Remmy at all today?"

"I told you. He said he didn't feel well."

"But he's usually up by now, it's nearly lunch time. He's missed breakfast."

"Maybe we should wake him up for lunch?" Sirius suggested as he dove to catch the ball that had been thrown into the air by Hooch. James caught it first, streaking away with it and tossing it back so he could catch it. The pass was spot on.

"Send Petie up. I'm sure he won't mind."

The sound of Madam Hooch's whistle told them to come back down, which they did immediately. The Hufflepuff Quidditch team was practicing on the pitch in the distance, little canary yellow flashes against the blue sky. Hooch smiled at them as they handed the brooms over.

"You boys should try out for the Quidditch team next year, you especially, Potter. You'd make good Chasers."

"Is there a position?" James asked, interested. 

"I believe that Stefan King is in his seventh year. There'll be an opening for Seeker of course, but I believe that the favourite for that placing is that third year chappie Bill Weasley. Bit of a wild one, Bill, but he's got it where it counts. Now you three best be running on to lunch now. Go and revise for your exams, they're coming up in a few weeks. Off you run now," she finished, and the three of them took off back to the castle.

"Hear that?" Sirius laughed. "Chaser positions next year. Are you going to have a go?"

"Sure. What about you two?"

"Me?" Peter nearly tripped. "I can hardly fly a broom straight, let alone catch a ball riding one."

"I might have a go," Sirius thought. "Couldn't hurt."

"Peter, if we save you a seat in the Great Hall, do you want to run up to Gryffindor Tower and wake up Remus?"

"Sure, but… isn't he sick?"

"Well he'll be even sicker if he misses lunch," James reasoned. "If he says no, just come back down. We'll sneak something up for him."

They reached the Entrance Hall and separated, Sirius and James heading to the Great Hall and Peter climbing the marble staircase to Gryffindor Tower. The majority of their year was already in the hall by the time they got there, the familiar five girls sitting a little way along the table in the company of some of the second and third-years, chattering loudly. Mana and Figwelda, as usual, were rather quiet, listening raptly and pitching in what and when they thought it necessary. James wanted to sit near the girls, and so Sirius followed him over. Midgeon was taking the proverbial podium now, relating in a loud voice some horrible incident that seemed to have happened to a Slytherin girl in their year involving the girl's toilets, some Filibuster's No Heat Wet-Start Fireworks and a box of eggs.

"…Well she and her friends had been leaving some horrible messes on purpose for the house-elves to clean up. Alice and Lily found this out the other night when they saw some of the little guys come in to clean our common room…"

James and Sirius sat down. They didn't need to hear this story; they'd been directly involved in it. There were a few plates of sandwiches on the table, but James went for a shepherd's pie and the flagon of iced pumpkin juice. 

"…Well I only had to say it once. If it's a problem with Slytherins you've got, count on them to sort it out…"

Sirius grinned back at the girls as a few glances were turned their way. James passed him a bowl of cheese crackers as he pulled the plate of chicken sandwiches over to him.

"…It was classical. You saw it too, of course Mana, Alice. Every last firework went off and I don't think I've ever seen a more jumbled expression. It was like utter shock, confusion and fury all at once…"

"You'd think they'd never seen a toilet blow up," Sirius rolled his eyes, referring to the girls as he poured himself a glass of pumpkin juice. "But I thought quite highly of the flying eggs."

"Thank Peter for that one. It was his little idea."

"I'll be sure to."

"…Of course, the three of them were busted by Filch, but they got out of it mad shocking, I don't think I've ever seen Peeves in such an amazingly wicked state!"

"You don't think a lot, Midgie," Lily prodded.

"Ahhh, but such a naivety is surely a virtue? It really does allow for the greatest effect when seeing the amazing pranks of the Marauders."

"Tell us again about how the eggs chased them down the Transfiguration hall."

"Okay, well…"

Just as Midgeon was about to go into detail about the heat-seeking missile eggs, Peter came trotting into the hall. He jogged along the table and slid into the seat next to James.

"Well? Where's Remus?"

Peter was reaching for a plate of corned beef sandwiches. He glanced up.

"He mumbled something about being sick and rolled over. Then he asked me to draw his curtains and went back to sleep."

"I'm getting a little worried about him," Sirius admitted, a real look of concern crossing his usually rather excited features. "He keeps getting sick at the same time every month."

"And he's usually missing the night before," James added. "But he always seems to have an excuse."

"Last night's was that he was in the hospital wing," Sirius told him. "That I believe. But Madam Pomfrey should've fixed him up in a jiffy."

"Oh well, even wizards get sick too," Peter sighed, helping himself to the cheese crackers. "Poor Remus. He really did look unwell."

Sirius and James began stashing food in their pockets as the laughter of the girls down the table crescendoed. Peter, seeing them, began doing the same. Lily had her eyes on them, and catching their gaze, shook her head disapprovingly. They gave her an imploring look and stood up, hastening to leave the hall. They walked up through the castle doing little more than jabber about past pranks, avoiding the egg, toilet and fireworks incident — the girls had worn it out for now, and threw back and forth some new ideas.

"Alihosty in the pumpkin juice, huh? Just on the Slytherin table though. Sounds good, I think we'll save that one."

"Super glue on the broom handles? I like that one Peter."

"Why don't we set off some fireworks in History of Magic? Could make it more interesting. Only it wouldn't be any fun because Binns probably wouldn't notice."

They drew up in front of the Fat Lady. "Alpha Centuri," they all said in unison and the portrait swung aside with a soft creak, and they went through into the common room. There were a few students from the other years, including the Quidditch team, their captain Sally Genista giving them some tactics pointers on their coming match against Slytherin. Though normally they'd have hung around to listen to Genista talk, they headed right upstairs to their dormitory and opened the door. One of the six beds had the hangings drawn, and there was no one else in the room. They approached the bed and James drew back the scarlet curtains, peering inside. Peter and Sirius crowded around him. Remus was fast asleep, looking, as Peter had said, quite ill. James gave his shoulder a gentle push.

"Hey Remmy? Remus, hey, wake up."

He mumbled something in his sleep and pulled the covers tighter.

"Remus? Hey wake up!"

He opened one eye and looked up at them.

"Mmmm? What?"

"You okay? It's past lunchtime. You've missed breakfast _and _lunch."

"I think I'll skip dinner too," he murmured, and went to go back to sleep.

"Well you've gotta eat something," Sirius persisted, and Remus opened that eye again and looked up at him. Sirius pulled some of the crackers out of his pockets. "Look, we brought you stuff."

"I don't think so… I appreciate the thought and all…"

"Here," Sirius said, ignoring his very feeble protest and handing him the crackers. He took them reluctantly and nibbled one.

"…Thanks."

"Anytime, Remmy," Sirius grinned. 

"Would you like us to leave you alone?" James asked. Remus nodded, and they stepped back. "We won't be far; we're down in the common room if you need us, okay?"

Remus nodded again and they stepped back, drawing the curtain closed again. They exchanged concerned glances, and then walked back downstairs. Genista was discussing manoeuvres with her Chasers as they came back into the common room, and they sat down just outside the circle of players, slumping in the chairs and listening.

"Now that Beater has a hard arm, King, so you'll need to be especially careful. I want you to mark him, okay Jenkins? Now about that scoring pass of yours, Mansfield, Bart are you listening? Pay more attention, Mansfield. I want to make sure you practice that special move. The Slytherin Keeper is good at blocking, but thankfully their Chasers aren't entirely up to scratch. But they play dirty, you've come to expect that. I'll worry about the Seeker…"

Genista's words seemed to be fading into the background as Peter turned to Sirius and James.

"So are we still on for tonight?"

*

It was sunset when the boys were sitting in the common room, waiting for the few people still there to peter away. James, under his robes, had folded the Invisibility Cloak. It was getting close to midnight when the last of the students left, and the three of the four Marauders climbed out of their chairs, crept to the portrait door and James pulled out the Cloak. Just then, they heard footsteps on the stairs from the boys' dormitory.

Before they had a chance to either hide or disappear under the Cloak, a pasty-faced boy came tottering down the stairs, rubbing an eye with one hand and trying to straighten his disarranged pyjamas with the other. His hair was sticking up everywhere, but alert tawny eyes were staring at them. It was Remus.

"Oh there you are. I woke up and you were all out of bed… Where're you going?" he asked, as if he didn't already know that they were up to something, having taken in the Invisibility Cloak and how close they were to the portrait door.

"We were going to sneak down to the kitchen doors and see if we can work out how to get in," James replied. Remus' pale face lifted.

"I can come, can't I?"

"You feel better?" Peter asked, looking him up and down. Remus brushed his hand unsteadily through his ruffled hair.

"I'm hungry. I've only eaten those crackers you brought me."

"Well as long as you feel okay," James said as the fourth Marauder walked over to them. Remus nodded. "Come on."

He cast the Cloak around their shoulders and they vanished from view. James pushed open the portrait door and they walked off down the empty, dark and moonlit corridor. The castle was eerie at night, and what was even more eerie was that they were able to walk right past Filch on the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall without him even catching a whiff of them. So they headed through the hall, down to the Potions corridor off the side of the Entrance Hall and proceeded into the dark corridors. Lanterns in the walls cast sparse light down here, and the halls were lined with paintings and portraits. Their feet made tiny taps on the stone. Then they drew to a halt outside a large painting. This one was of a lot of fruit, and lo and behold, it was wide open. A group of house-elves were climbing through the hole in the wall into the room beyond. The four boys, still hidden by the Cloak, followed swiftly after them. The painting closed behind them, but they weren't in darkness. They were in the kitchens.

Before anyone could consciously stop him, Sirius had darted out from under the Cloak, into plain sight. Now of course the elves saw him. But they held their breath for no reason, for as soon as the hundred of house-elves saw Sirius, they burst into calls of glee. Immediately they crowded around.

"Éclairs, sir?"

"Some hot chocolate young Gryffindor master?"

"Cake, fresh out of the oven for you sir!"

James pulled the Cloak away from the rest of them. The little creatures with their crooked noses and great big ears were in a state of euphoria by now, crowding around and offering anything that they could carry.

"Here are some sandwiches for you!"

"Can we take your coats young masters?"

"Would you like a seat at all?"

James managed a laugh. He looked around.

"Is this the kitchens?"

"Oh yes, it is, is it sir," cried a few of the elves. They looked around. Apart from the stoves and ovens and countless storerooms, in the middle of the lengthy kitchen were four tables along and one across. They must be exactly underneath the Great Hall, for this was obviously where the food that seemed to magically appear appeared from. The elves were still scrambling to see to the four boys.

"We found the door ajar," Remus said to the nearest elf, which seemed as though about to faint by being addressed by him. "How is it that it opens?"

"Oh, there is a pear in the fruit painting," she replied. "You tickle it, and the doors open!"

"Oh there he goes," James pointed to Sirius, who'd run off with a duckling-tail of elves behind him. "We'll get him back if we can ever get him off the roof."

Remus let himself be led off by the elves, having wanted to come down to find something worth eating anyway. That left James and Peter, still being bombarded by offerings from the little elves. James had a sudden idea.

"Say…" he turned to the house-elves. "You wouldn't happen to have some pancake mix, a box of eggs and a bottle of fizzy drink, would you?"

"Of course sir!" replied several at once. They scurried off the retrieve what James had asked for. Peter looked at him queerly.

"Pancake mix, eggs and fizzy drink? What have you got in mind?"

"Oh nothing much, just something that might convince that slimy git Snape to wash his hair. It's a work in progress, Petie, I'll explain later."

An hour later they found themselves dragging a shaking Sirius out of the kitchen. Remus was shaking his head as he looked at him, James trying to cover them all with the Cloak. It wasn't working; Sirius would simply _not _stand still. Peter stated the obvious by saying he thought Sirius had had a little bit too much sugar. He was careful not to mention the bag of goodies he'd hidden under his robes, as it was more than obvious that Sirius would very nearly strip him bare looking for him. In his current state, he probably would've done just that because he thought it would be fun.

"_Sirius_!" James hissed as Remus tried to secure his hands behind his back. "Stay quiet! You're going to get us caught."

But even as he said it, he could hear the unmistakable sound of heavy footsteps. It was Filch. Remus and Peter grabbed Sirius as tightly as they could as James threw the Cloak around them. The caretaker stopped right where they had been moments ago, and shone his torch around, clearly looking for them. 

"I know yer out 'ere," he snarled. "Heard yer whisperin'. Come out an' maybe I'll go easy on yer…"

The sound of his voice even silenced Sirius, he had stopped wriggling. And then, with a look of utter disappointment on his face, Filch kept moving. They let go of their held breath. They could still hear him down the corridor though.

"…If I catch yer, yer'll all be in trouble yer will…"

Silently they made their way back up the stairs and back into Gryffindor Tower. They reached the common room where the fire was dwindling behind the grate. Off came the cloak, and suddenly…

"Hail the conquering heroes," a few lights suddenly came on around the common room. Sitting around the room were several Gryffindors including the Quidditch team, mostly in the years above them, though Lily, Midgeon, Alice and Frank were sitting on the sofa next to Bill Weasley. It was Lily who had spoken, still holding her wand tip at the candle she'd lit. "Sit down. We need to talk to you."

_(ooooooh, now what could Lily and the Gryffindors possibly want to_

_discuss with our favourite Marauders? _

_Are they in trouble?_

_Has something happened?_

_All these answers and more in Chapter 7: Quidditch, Quarrels and Quirks!)_


	7. Quidditch, Quarrels & Quirks

**7.**

_Quidditch, Quarrels and Quirks___

So they'd been reprimanded and commissioned. Funny thing being, they were commissioned to do what they were reprimanded for. Making trouble. It was true, that their next Quidditch match was against Slytherin. It was also true that they relied on brute force to win them matches. But it was excessively true that this time Gryffindor wanted to fight dirty too. Of course they protested and whined and complained — they liked to think of their own scenarios, come up with their own targets and pull their own pranks sometimes with a little outside help, not to mention that the exams were in the week between then and the match. But the threat of having their Cloak turned in to McGonagall and being uncovered by their own house kind of gave an idea about how far Gryffindor wanted to go. So today, when according to Lily's study schedule they should have been revising for Charms, they were pooling together their props and pranks. 

"I don't believe they're making us do this," James seethed, pulling out the pancake mix he'd been stowing away since their visit to the kitchens. "We're not prank mercenaries. Our genius isn't buyable."

"Maybe we should try and call their bluff?" Sirius suggested. For a moment it seemed like a good idea, until Remus sighed.

"Somehow I don't think Lily and Sally were kidding."

"We should get their Seeker," Peter said, going back to the matter they had been discussing. "Match usually goes to the one who catches the Snitch, so it their Seeker is… ahem… _malfunctioning, Sally should have a good chance, right?"_

"That's pretty smart, Peter," James laughed. "A bit out of character for you though."

"I try," he replied. James sat back down, adding the pancake mix to the pile of props on the floor.

"So what have we got to work with?"

"Eggs and more eggs… streamers… what's left of that bang-broth we fed to Rosier's cat… ummm… oh look, a case of slime! Where'd you get that, Remus?"

"Christmas off my brother."

"Errrr… this pancake stuff, fizzy drink, super glue… countless stupid gags…" Sirius sighed and put down a fake roast turkey that sprang back up and started running around the room. "Nothing remotely dangerous."

"Hexes? What about something like the Confundus Charm?" Remus asked. They continued to ponder. Peter looked up eventually.

"One of us could impersonate the Seeker and lose the match on purpose," he suggested and they all looked at him. Sirius was gaping, and James stared at him as though he were ill.

"Peter… wait… no you can't be Peter…"

Sirius grabbed his shoulders and shook him. "Who are you and what have you done with my little Petie?"

"No really," he laughed in reply, shoving Sirius' hands away. "There's lots of ways to do it. We could Transfigure one of us… we could use some sort of potion…"

"There's one which turns you into someone else, but it only lasts for an hour, and we don't know how to Transfigure ourselves," Remus, the voice of reason, replied. "But you know… I think Peter might have something. Hmmm… James, I'm going to need the Invisibility Cloak."

James stared at him now. "Why?"

"I need to sneak into the Restricted Section of the Library. I need a book, and we'll need some pretty strange stuff I'll bet. Sirius, your mother has a lot of weird potions ingredients, right?"

"Our pantry looks like the Apothecary," he replied simply. 

"Do you think you could write home tonight and ask for some stuff?"

"Sure. I'm sure she won't mind."

Remus nodded. "Okay. Next week Gryffindor plays Slytherin. This is going to be hard… we can't use the potion that turns you into someone else, because we don't have enough time. So instead we need a potion that makes people think you're someone else. We have to sneak it into the drinks for breakfast before the match. I'm sure Sirius can do that, he must know the way to the kitchen by heart by now."

His reply was a beaming grin and a chest-thump. Remus went back into thought for a moment, and then turned to Peter.

"We need someone to catch the Seeker. Peter, I'll need you to incapacitate him somehow. Lock him in a cupboard or something."

"There's a Vanishing Cabinet in a room near Filch's office, that'd take care of him for the match and confuse him enough so he wouldn't know what had gone on," he said. They all nodded again. Remus was thinking.

"Good idea, Peter. Now what does the Seeker look like?"

"Not very bulky, but he's tall," James remembered. "He's a third year."

"James, you're the best at potions here, so you can make this draught we'll need. We won't need much — if I remember correctly, you don't need much more than a drop per person. We should put some in the food too, just in case. We'll need a fair bit. You up to it?"

"Yeah. There's a storeroom just below us where I can do it."

"So what are you going to do?" Peter asked, turning to Remus, who grinned coolly.

"I'm going to impersonate the Seeker."

*

Very early in the morning, long, long before anyone would be up, the portrait door into Gryffindor Tower opened but it looked as though no one came out of it. Tiny, padding footsteps could be heard along the corridor, but there was nobody there. The tiny footsteps continued all along the corridor, down the staircases, along the halls and down the great marble staircase in the dim, silent Entrance Hall. They tapped quietly on the stone of the dungeon stairs, along the lantern-lit corridor and they stopped directly in front of a large painting of fruit. A hand appeared out of nowhere, with no body there for it to belong to. It tickled the pear in the painting. It wiggled, and then turned into a handle. The disembodied hand grasped it and opened the kitchen door, pulling the painting closed behind it and vanishing.

On the other side of the painting, the hand grabbed something that didn't seem to be there, and then there was an arm for the hand, a body for the arm, legs for the body and a head and the other arm appeared, holding a large flask of something. The Invisibility Cloak was draped over one of the boy's arms and there was not an elf in sight. The intruder crept along the house tables, which were already laden with all kinds of foods and drinks. Then, starting at the staff table, he began to add a drop of the potion to every drink flagon and piece of food.

*

The school was rowdy with excitement over breakfast in the Great Hall. The Gryffindor-Slytherin matches were always a talking point, Gryffindor and Slytherin being the two most competitive houses in the school, so much so that when they were at loggerheads, it was a sight to be believed only if beheld. As for the teams, they were both gone, down to the change rooms to prepare for the match. But there was another notable absence from the Gryffindor table. Four first-year boys were nowhere to be seen. 

Meanwhile, already seated in the stadium were three of those four boys. Peter, James and Sirius were trying not to grin too broadly as they watched the Slytherin team enter the change room. One henna-russet haired boy was probably the most amusing thing they had ever seen in their life. Sirius was gazing at his watch. He looked up at the doors as the rest of the school came down to the pitch. Soon the seats around them were filling up. Before long they found themselves surrounded by Lily and her group. The girls themselves were sitting in the row behind them, and when Lily reached forward and tapped James on the shoulder, it was to give him and meaningful look. When he turned back, he grimaced.

"I suddenly feel very nervous."

"Why?" Peter asked, looking down at the pitch. Sirius stared down in the same direction, his jaw set.

"We have an audience, Petie."

"We usually do."

"But this audience is going to turn us in with our Invisibility Cloak if they don't see what they want to," James said under the sound of the girls behind them talking to each other. Peter's face fell.

"Oh. Yeah."

"Welcome to the last Quidditch match of the year! Gryffindor versus Slytherin!" the voice of Rohan Wood thundered around the stands and the crowd roared as one. The players zoomed out onto the field, seven green streaks and seven scarlet ones, which all hovered in the air. They could see the captains; Genista for Gryffindor and a burly-looking boy with black hair for Slytherin. They could see, looking determined with his eyes on Genista, Remus-as-Slytherin Seeker high above them.

"Captain Genista has won all her matches except the one against Ravenclaw at the beginning of the season, so the Slytherin Seeker…"

"See the Seeker?" James turned around to face Lily. "That's not the Seeker."

"You sabotaged the game?"

"You could say that," Sirius replied. "But not so much the game, rather, how the school sees the game. Trust me, this one's in the bag."

"It had better be," Bill said between cheers, "or that Cloak goes straight to McGonagall. Along with what you tried to do to the match."

"Harsh," Sirius chirped. "We could be suspended!"

"Don't you boys worry," Midgeon cut off Bill and Lily before they could make them feel worse. "If you did your homework I'm sure you'll pull this one off fine."

They grinned and turned back to the match. The score was already ten-zero Slytherin's way. 

"Blinks passes to King, King passes to Mansfield… Mansfield doges the Bludger from Rosier… good Bludger return there at Slytherin Keeper Malfoy by Fawcett… Mansfield scores! The score is tied ten-ten!"

The match dragged on. Slowly the scores climbed and climbed, and before long they had tied again. Gryffindor was up. Slytherin was up. Bludgers and brooms rocketed this way and that after the balls they chased. 

"I must've seen that Snitch myself a hundred times!" they heard Bill cry. "What're the Seekers doing?"

But even as he said it, Genista dived. Remus-as-Seeker, in an effort to pretend, dived after her, but he had made sure she had a head start. And the head start was all she needed. Within seconds, Genista held the little golden ball, and the game was Gryffindor's.

*

Remus had managed to get out of the changing rooms quick-smart, and was with them in the Entrance Hall barely a quarter of an hour later. He was still getting looks and waves that were clearly not intended for him, and he sighed.

"Potion should wear off by about lunchtime."

"That's pretty soon. Come on; let's get back to Gryffindor Tower before someone sees you."

"Oh but someone has, Mr Potter."

They turned around. Standing behind them with her arms crossed and a taunt look on her face was Professor McGonagall. The same thought went through all their heads at once — had the others told anyway? But though the look on her face said she knew they'd done something, it didn't, however, say she knew what it was that they did. 

"Come with me, you four."

She turned on her heel and led them away, up stairs and along corridors, opening a door near the Transfiguration corridor and ushering them in. They'd been shown into her office. She strode to her table and then turned with a swift sweep, glaring hard at them.

"Now I don't pretend to know exactly what it was that you did today, but first seeing Mr Gundy and then Mr Lupin as being the same person is enough to make anyone certain that you've been up to something. I'd assume of course that it would have something to do with perhaps a charm… or maybe a potion? Out with it boys."

"Well, you see Professor," James began, putting on his most hard-done-by voice, "we might have done it but we didn't do it of our own free will."

"Oh? Well whose will did you do it by then?"

They all bit their lips. They couldn't rat on their house, however unfair they may have been. Sirius thought quickly.

"S-Severus Snape, Professor. He said he and his friends were going to do something horrible to us if we didn't."

"Didn't what, Mr Black?"

"Didn't… switch Remus with Gundy," he admitted. McGonagall looked for a moment livid, but there seemed to be something sparkling in her eyes.

"So that's what it was then, was it? And why exactly would a Slytherin want you to sabotage their chances for the Quidditch Cup?"

"Well we always thought that Snape's priorities were in his backside, Professor, so we're not too sure on that either. But we think he hoped that Remus would fall off the broom or something."

"I see. Well, I will have to speak to Mr Snape, _but you mark my words, if anything like this ever happens again there will be worse consequences in store for you apart from the detentions you will all be on tomorrow night. I believe Professor Kettleburn has some creatures that need grooming, so I'll be checking with him today, and I'll inform you tomorrow in class if there are to be any changes."_

"Are you going to make them rematch?" Peter asked shakily. McGonagall stared at him, but what seemed to be a smile flashed across her face.

"This close to exams? Why, there just wouldn't be enough time," she sighed. "I suppose we'll have to keep this little incident to ourselves and hope that it doesn't reoccur _next year_. Off you all go."

They filed out of her office and into the hall. Once they were far away from her office, they all breathed a sigh of relief. James stared at the path ahead.

"Cor blimey," he gasped. "We were almost busted!"

"That was fast thinking, Sirius, you've done us proud," Remus grinned. "Detention with Kettleburn… that shouldn't be too bad. I don't mind grooming animals."

"Unfortunately it seems likely that the animals might not want to be groomed…" Peter mused. "What if they're dangerous animals? Kettleburn teaches seventh years about Hippogriffs and things like that."

"Hippogriffs aren't at all bad," Sirius waved it off. "Just don't insult them."

"Well Marauders," James sighed, "I am officially proud of us. We've sabotaged a Quidditch match and come out with nothing more severe than a detention with Kettleburn."

"If I had a glass, I'd toast," Sirius chirped. "To the Marauders! And to Remus who isn't too shabby on a broomstick if I do say so myself."

They laughed and chattered all the way down the corridor and back to Gryffindor Tower, where they were given a hero's welcome — thanks to Midgeon and her gang of girls, the news of their ultimate prank on the school had spread like wildfire. Some said that Remus still looked like Gundy to them, and the Quidditch team admitted that even they had been fooled. 

The term was drawing very much to its close. The weather was warming and the skies were clear, the End of Term Feast was nigh, and Gryffindor's House Cup victory was imminent. So would end a perfect first year for four first-years. The era of the Marauders had officially begun.

*

"Is what I heard true?"

They all looked up from their luggage. Standing not five feet from them was the raven-haired girl Sirius, James and Remus had shared the compartment with on the way to Hogwarts a little less than a year ago now, a time that seemed now so recent yet far away. They straightened up and looked at her, confused.

"Is what you heard true?" James asked.

"Did you switch Remus and Gundy in that last Quidditch match?"

"You're a little slow," Peter said, and earned a whack across the head from Sirius. It seemed unprovoked, so he stared at him as Sirius picked up the conversation.

"Before you say anything, I'd like you to know that your friend Lily forced us into it."

"Lily? She's hardly the sort…"

"Let's say all of Gryffindor wanted a piece of the plan… or… most of Gryffindor anyway," James said. Remus heaved his trunk up into the compartment.

"Sit with us and we'll explain," he suggested, and Mana looked at him as if he were mad. He saw her face and shrugged. "I dunno… just a suggestion."

"Yeah, come on Mana. All the other girls have managed to get a piece of us," Sirius joked. She looked suddenly utterly offended though, and bundled up her cases, walking off. Sirius gave a start, realised how it had come out, and turned. "I didn't mean it like that!"

"Whether you meant it like that or not, that's how it came out," James sighed. "You'll need to talk to Midgeon for damage control."

"_Now _I feel like an ass," he replied as Remus jerked on his sleeve. 

"Well get on the train and feel like an ass. I'm sure you wouldn't like to spend your summer break standing on the platform. Then you'll look like an ass too. Don't worry, she'll forget about it. Don't know why you're bothered — it's not like you talk to her much anyway."

"That's not the point!" he wailed as he let them pull him into the carriage. The doors were closed not far behind them, and as they settled into a compartment, they heard the train whistle. In two months, they would be back here again, having more adventures when they began their second year at Hogwarts.

_What will happen next year? _

_Why is Remus always sick and away once a month?_

_And will Rubelt and Snape get a break?_

_This next in Chapter 8: Back to Hogwarts!_


End file.
